Government Operations Committee on March 20th, 2018

[Michael Vandergrift]

It will be later in 2018, but I can absolutely assure you that we are fully conscious of the need to proceed with speed on this. All resources are on deck to make this happen.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Now, Ms. Lemay and Ms. Qualtrough, we've heard on the small business procurement study we're doing.... I think I can say its non-partisan. We're doing excellent work, and we're digging into it.

One of the issues that we're hearing is how difficult it is, the amount of red tape. However, at the same time, tomorrow we're going to hear a third reading of Bill C-344, the community benefits on procurement, which is going to add a lot of uncertainty and red tape to the process.

I've asked this twice before, and I'm going to ask again because it's third reading tomorrow. Has the government done a study on what Bill C-344 would mean in added costs to taxpayers and what it would mean in added paperwork and added time to our small businesses?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

You have fifteen seconds to respond so that we stay on time.

[Marie Lemay]

The way we see this is that it is not really an added burden. It's additional information, but it also allows us to make decisions based on information and with awareness of getting that—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Have you done a study of the added costs?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Mr. McCauley, your time is up.

Mr. Drouin, you have five minutes, please.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I cannot help but ask a question. Today is the International Day of La Francophonie. Supplementary estimates (C) provides $6.9 million to ensure that parliamentarians and Canadians continue to be served in the official language of their choice.

Can you elaborate on what the $6.9 million will be used for? I know it's not a big amount, but I'd like to know the details because it's important to the people in my riding.

[Marie Lemay]

Thank you very much. I'm glad you asked the question in French, because it is indeed the International Day of La Francophonie.

The amounts of money allocated to us will enable us to cope with the 40% to 45% increase in volume. We are reviewing the situation at the translation bureau, where a lot of progress has been made. There is a new CEO and a new person is taking care of the quality. More than 150 students were hired last year. We are renewing ties with industry and universities. So there is a lot of work to be done. The money will be used more specifically to deal with the increase in volume.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Let me take the opportunity to thank you, Minister, and to congratulate Ms. Paquet on her new position.

Now, I'll ask the burning question: what about Phoenix? According to the table here, we now seem to be focusing on capacity building. Can you tell us about it? You went from 550 compensation employees to 1,500, correct? How is the training of those employees going? Clearly, it's a new workload. Are you focusing more on training this time?

[Les Linklater]

We have very stringent training programs. We started hiring people at the entry level into the public service. We give them the opportunity to work and learn on the job, if you will. In addition, we give highly qualified and highly motivated individuals the opportunity to be promoted and become managers, coaches and mentors to help other employees in the network.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Madam Minister, as a parliamentarian, I'm glad that you were able to get $645 million. There would have been a problem if you had been told to fix your problems and that you could not access those resources. I think resources are important for our officials to be able to work on those issues. Of course, we, as parliamentarians, do not work directly on that.

In the table, we can see that, in the amount of $142 million, $15 million is earmarked for the Treasury Board Secretariat and $127 million for Public Services and Procurement Canada. Once again, the focus is on building capacity. With the $142 million, are you still planning to increase the number of employees, which has already been increased to 1,500?

[Les Linklater]

Yes, the $142 million represents expenditures that we have already made to increase staffing and capacity. The $431 million will allow us to maintain this capacity and increase it over the next five years.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Some of my constituents who are public servants told me about their department needing resources. I think I heard the minister say that this will be done in the next few years or months. Is that correct?

[Les Linklater]

As I mentioned, the departments were allowed to keep designated savings of about $210 million over three years to help them rebuild their capacity in terms of human resources.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you, Mr. Drouin.

Mr. Blaikie, you have three minutes, please.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I want to ask a question about the $2.5 million related to government advertising programs. Early in the government's mandate there was a lot of fanfare about a government advertising policy, and that applied particularly to print and TV. There were questions right at the time about whether or not that policy would apply to social media advertising. My understanding is that it never got there, and the advertising policy doesn't apply in the same way to social media advertising.

We also know that your government has said quite openly that when it comes to large web-based companies such as Facebook, there's no plan to make them pay their fair share in terms of taxation within Canada. Then, recently, there are stories that have broken on the Facebook file suggesting that the information gathered through people's interactions with advertising on Facebook has been used for nefarious purposes, including influencing the outcomes of elections. In the absence of your government committing to any substantive action, I'm wondering whether it's on the revenue side of advertising with these folks, or on the security side.

How responsible is it for the government to be shifting its advertising dollar focus to social media platforms instead of traditional media, which are also struggling in terms of revenue? Not only are we shifting towards a medium where the government is not taking the kind of action it should in order to provide revenue and security, it's also taking revenue out of struggling Canadian media outlets that depend—among other things—on that advertising revenue.

I'm trying to square those two things and I'm having a hard time, so maybe you can help.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I understand your question. I would first say that of course we're very concerned about the privacy and security of Canadians and their information. That's a priority for us.

I would say, however, that we need to balance providing information for Canadians where they get their information. We are committed to traditional forms of media, but we also want to ensure that information is given to Canadians where they go, and they go to social media.

I think Marie can talk about the exact dollars and what the dollars are for.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I would agree with you on that. I do think it's important to get information to where Canadians go, but what I can't quite understand, then, is why your government wouldn't also commit to take action on the revenue side to ensure the government money that's being used—and not just government money, but advertising dollars in Canada—is nevertheless generating some money for the Canadian government and also some money that might then be reinvested in some of our struggling media outlets.

Then, on the security side and on the advertising policy side, why your government.... It's one thing to say that we want to go to where Canadians are in terms of providing information, but why you wouldn't follow up to do that responsibly is a mystery to me.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Mr. Blaikie, your time is up. I'm sorry. You can't get a response now, but you can ask them to submit a written response if you so wish.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I'd be happy if they could do that.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Minister, I'd like to thank you and your officials for being here.

I'll the suspend the meeting for a minute or so to allow the minister to leave.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

The departmental officials will stay, and you can ask the same question of the officials.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Committee members, we have to resume because we don't have much time.

We'll start with you, Monsieur Drouin. You have seven minutes.