Government Operations Committee on March 22nd, 2018

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I have a lot of respect for Mr. Ayoub, and I appreciate the non-partisan way in which we mostly interact.

I disagree that the fact that Christopher Wylie used Facebook is an imaginary issue. Whether you call it a hack or improper use of analytics to mess with the U.S. election, the fact that he's involved with the current government and has worked with the party in the past is not imaginary. It's a real issue, and it's a real scandal.

Government advertising continues with Facebook, Twitter, and Google. These are not imaginary issues. We brought the issues up in the past when we did the study, and the bureaucrats mentioned that yes, they had analytics, and they shared them with internal people within the party-exempt staff.

It's not an imaginary issue that the Russians are using social media and Facebook and probably using the same analytics from people from government or people who are clicking on government sites. It's not imaginary. It's a real issue, and it affects government advertising.

I'm not asking about the wider issues of electoral reform or this and that, but specifically about government advertising. I don't think it will be reflected in another study. We've asked for this before, and I think it's very important that we have her come and address the issue of Facebook and government advertising, which is the purview of this committee and is linked to the actual study that we did previously in this committee.

We brought up the issue of privacy and who has access to this, months before this whole Christopher Wylie scandal blew up. I think it's very relevant. With all due respect—because I do have a lot of respect for you—it's not an imaginary issue. It's a real issue. I'm happy to—

[Ramez Ayoub, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I don't think I said “imaginary” but—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

You did. Maybe it was the interpretation—she's shaking her head.

I'm fine if we go to the vote, but I think it's a very serious issue. I think we should have her here as soon as possible.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you, Mr. McCauley.

Seeing no more interventions, I'll call the vote.

(Motion negatived)

We now continue with the next round for seven minutes.

Mr. Blaikie.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I guess that's my seven minutes.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Oh, I'm following Tom's processes now.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you for bearing with us.

I now have my seven minutes through you.

Thank you very much.

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

It's all about you.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Yeah, it's all about me.

Mr. Drouin brought up the bit about you changing the exclusion zone. How have you communicated that?

It was very clear to us when we had some indigenous groups in. They were aware that they were excluded. How have you communicated that you've changed the process?

[Rob Wright]

In a minute, I'll ask Matthew Sreter to give some of the details.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Just briefly, how have you communicated it?

[Rob Wright]

There's a set process that happens the same way every single time—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Sorry.

How have you communicated this, please?

[Matthew Sreter]

Essentially, we contacted everybody on that supply arrangement list—so it's a supply arrangement—and we informed them—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

If they were excluded because they weren't allowed to bid on it originally, have you communicated to new groups that may be available? Just a month ago we had an indigenous group here who pointed it out and brought it to our attention, so they obviously weren't aware.

Have we communicated this to any groups that may have been barred originally?

[Matthew Sreter]

This was related to a supply arrangement, which means that there was a pre-qualified list of suppliers that formed part of that original listing. Upon extension of the time frame and removal of the 50-kilometre zone, all of the supply arrangement participants would have been informed of both elements at that point in time.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Do you believe that's enough communication? Is there a better way we can broaden the scope of that communication to perhaps get more indigenous or targeted groups involved?

[Matthew Sreter]

The nature of the procurement vehicle itself, being that it is a pre-qualified list of suppliers, in and of itself necessitates the communication be done with that supplier grouping that's already pre-qualified to perform those duties and functions.

In terms of any other procurement vehicles, yes, there are certainly opportunities to do better.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks.

You mentioned that you're working with youth, women, indigenous groups. On the metrics that you have for their opportunities that they've been successfully involved in, how do those compare to the private sector number-wise? Do you know? Are you doing better, doing worse, or not tracking?

[Rob Wright]

I wouldn't say that we've done a lot of benchmarking with the private sector for the work that we are doing. I would say we compare favourably within the federal government.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

That's probably not saying much.

[Rob Wright]

No, it's not.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Can you provide to us in the committee the exact numbers and then compare them to similar numbers in the private sector, please, so we can see what you're doing.

Something came up last year about the renovations at the James Michael Flaherty Building. Were you involved in that?

[Rob Wright]

No, we're not responsible for that.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

How are we ensuring that we're not getting the same issues with the parliamentary precinct as those with the $50,000 coat hangers? Have we changed oversight to ensure we're not getting a repeat of that?