Government Operations Committee on May 10th, 2018

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

A minute and a half.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Great.

I just want to get back to the shipbuilding. Mr. Garrison brought up some very good points. I've spent a lot of time with Seaspan, as well, and what we're hearing very clearly is that there seems to be a delay with getting designs approved, and our—the Government of Canada, whatever your department—getting stuff set so they can get the next ship started so that we're not laying off hundreds of very well-trained people who are then going to disappear to other jobs. What are we doing to fix that? It's the same issue with Irving.

I'd like a quick answer, please, because I have a follow-up.

In the PBO report on the shipbuilding, he was quite critical that he could not get costing details from the government. They blocked him, and he couldn't even get access to the RFP. He had to go to the States to study the U.S. shipbuilding to get an idea of the costs up here. I'm just curious, why are we blocking our own PBO from oversight of this?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

You have 30 seconds to answer.

[Marie Lemay]

On the first part, the gaps portion, we're very mindful. We're looking at a series of projects, so it's a program that we have to manage. It's very important and we're very involved in looking at solutions. I don't know if...the costing, the dollars.

[Michael Vandergrift]

Yes, we've been working with the Parliamentary Budget Officer around these issues. As far as I know, it's in the departments that work on them.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Have the RFPs been released to him?

[Michael Vandergrift]

That I don't know, Minister.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you, Mr. McCauley.

We'll go to Mr. Dhaliwal for five minutes.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for the presentations here.

My question goes to Madam Lemay. I'm going to carry on where Mr. Garrison left off on the Phoenix system. He said he has brought in 13 representative cases to your department, and he has not heard anything. If a member of Parliament cannot get a response from your department, how can an ordinary Canadian approach the department and get things resolved?

[Marie Lemay]

I will ask Les to complement on this, but I just want to say that we have many entries for the employees to reach.... There are many channels. All employees should get an answer, so that is not acceptable, and we'll definitely make sure we follow up on it.

Les, maybe you want to add something.

[Les Linklater]

We've also made some improvements with regard to client service. We've expanded our client contact centre by hiring 200 public servants in Gatineau to be able to take calls and to receive forms from employees. We've ensured training on all of the available systems related to pay—Phoenix, Jira, and the case management tool. Now when employees call they're talking to an agent who has access to their file in the Phoenix system and can provide them with updates and details, which had not been the case prior to standing up this centre.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Okay.

I come from British Columbia, and I know that your department is doing great things there, whether it's the shipyard in Vancouver or the Esquimalt graving dock. Can you give an update as to how all the improvements that are going on are going to help British Columbians when it comes to economic benefits or creating jobs there?

[Michael Vandergrift]

There's been tremendous progress at the Seaspan shipyards in Vancouver. In December, the first OFSV ship was launched, which was a historic moment. We're expecting the launch of the next two Coast Guard vessels this year. With that certainly comes jobs in the community, and as the deputy mentioned earlier, a supply chain of jobs that exist throughout British Columbia, but also more broadly throughout the country. Part of the objective of the shipbuilding strategy was not just to establish shipyards, but to re-establish a supply chain and a marine industry in Canada that had disappeared over time. There are benefits that extend quite significantly through British Columbia and through the country as that work continues.

As for the graving dock, we're making significant investments now to improve it. It's a vital asset for Canada and for the Royal Canadian Navy for the maintenance of its vessels, so we've certainly been investing in that graving dock to make sure that it can fulfill its needed purpose, and that's creating construction jobs as well as jobs at the dock itself in the region for the work that's done there.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

When you talk about construction jobs and contracts, if you look at British Columbia, it's the small and medium-sized businesses that create opportunities.

What is your department doing to help them to engage? You have done excellent work for indigenous communities, but when it comes to other minorities, whether it's LGBTQ communities or visible minorities, what is your department doing to encourage them to participate in those contracts?

[Marie Lemay]

We have an office of small and medium-sized enterprise. That is actually a group that we think we have underutilized and now are really wanting to reach out to the communities. We want to make sure that they understand our processes and how they can actually contribute, whether it's the procurement process or the different places where the small and medium-sized enterprises can actually connect with government. There is an office in British Columbia, so you will see more and more activity. They've been active on the ground, but we intend to use it even more to do the outreach to the communities.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you; and thank you also to our parliamentary secretary who is with us, a great friend and a great inspirer, Steve MacKinnon.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dhaliwal.

We'll go to the last round of five minutes, jointly shared by Mr. McCauley and Mr. Kelly.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I want to get back to the shipbuilding, the gap that we're seeing or that is threatened for the CSCs and Irving Shipbuilding, and Seaspan as well has been identified.

What concrete plan do we have in place to ensure there is no gap? Both companies have come forward now, identifying the gap long ago, threatening layoffs, and so on, and adding massive costs as we have to ramp up again. What are we going to do to prevent that?

[Michael Vandergrift]

That is absolutely a key issue.

On the west coast with Seaspan in Vancouver, we're looking at options on how we could accelerate the start of the construction of the joint supply ships project as a way to help fill in the gap there. That work is going on right now.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

What are the options? When are you going to provide them with, or approve, the design? I understand that's the sticking point right now.

[Michael Vandergrift]

The design work is under way right now. The question is, are there parts of the design that are sufficiently well established that could move to early construction? That's what's being looked at right now.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I understand we're buying it off the shelf, so I would think so.

[Michael Vandergrift]

That's the point we're trying to move on now.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Are we waiting for approval by PSPC to sign off?

[Michael Vandergrift]

We're in the act of negotiations with the yard on this right now, so it's on both parties to finalize this.