Evidence of meeting #122 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was phoenix.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Thank you very much.
We will have the last five-minute round before committee business.
Mr. McCauley.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Just so Shared Services is not feeling all lonesome, there was a report recently regarding Corrections Canada having an issue with Shared Services. Can you fill us in briefly about that? Was it a conflict or...?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Shared Services Canada
SSC and Correctional Services are working together to deliver services to Canadians. The October incident that was referred to in the news was only due to an external party provider in relation to building management. SSC and CSC worked together to resolve the issue.
The article also mentioned about CSC leaving SSC. This is not the case at all. We're working together to deliver the deliverable services.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
12:35 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Shared Services Canada
The report is saying it's the third party provider. We are working with CSC, and they are continuing to take the services from Shared Services Canada.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
At the last appearance with Shared Services, Mr. Parker shared with us some of the departmental satisfaction scores. Do you have an update for us?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Shared Services Canada
Yes. The last time we were here, Mr. Parker reported on the November result, which was 3.46 over 5; and in December we did our annual result which was 3.4 overall, which is really trending upwards from the 3.06 in 2016 and 2.79 in 2015.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Oh, great. Are you able to break it out? How was the score for Correctional Services compared to the one for last year in light of this media?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Shared Services Canada
If we look at 2016, the score for 2017 was up 1.1 point in terms of the general satisfaction.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Wonderful. So it's a very isolated issue that maybe got overblown in the media?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Shared Services Canada
It's unfortunate that it was reported the way it was. Thank you.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
The $12 million for the G7 support—what is that going to be used for specifically out of PSPC?
12:35 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Michael will take that one.
12:35 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It is used for three main categories of activities. First is actually leasing the facilities, so leasing space here in Ottawa for the summit team as well as space in Quebec for hosting the summit.
Second is providing a range of services for departments, so procurement services, event-hosting facilities, room set-ups, and that sort of thing. Third is translation services. You can imagine there's a big need for translation services. We're responsible for providing those also, so that's what that is for as well.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Okay.
Can you give me a ballpark breakdown by percentage, so, for example, half is for translation, just something really rough?
12:35 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The majority is for the real property, the leases. That's the largest component, Mr. McCauley.
12:35 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Marty has the details.
12:35 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We have the number here.
12:35 p.m.
Marty Muldoon Chief Financial Officer, Finance and Administration Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Approximately 50% to 55% of the allocation is towards the real property requirements, and a very small fraction would be on the interpretation translation services side of the equation, about $1 million out of the $11.5 million or $12 million.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Staying on the translation, I know the question came up earlier about the $7 million for extra translation services. It looked for parliamentary.... What is that extra $7 million going toward for parliamentary translation services?
12:35 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Do you want to....?
Well, it's translation, interpretation, and closed caption hours.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
12:40 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Actually, there's been a large increase. On words translated, there's been a 47% increase; on interpretation days, a 40% increase; and, on closed caption hours, 46%. You're doing more business; you're consulting more; you're more—
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I realize a lot is probably due to Kevin Lamoureux and Garnett Genuis from our side talking more, but are there any other specific reasons?