Evidence of meeting #132 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.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
In terms of the community benefits, it's information gathering. We're going to gather the information. There's a possibility of asking the contractors to provide that information.
So no—I think we've answered this before—there hasn't been any costing yet.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
The answer before was always, “We haven't done it yet.”
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It's still the case.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
It's still the case? Okay.
Your departmental plan results refer to different methodologies. Page 14 is an example. This has come up in previous years. It's almost like, “Well we can't compare it to what we did last year because we've changed the goal post.” We're not able to compare apples to apples in where your department is. This is not just your department; this is several departmental plans across the whole of government.
Would you be able to go through and provide to us apples to apples from the departmental plans so that we can actually see what you're accomplishing or what your goals are?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I think the good news this year is that, as you've probably noticed, the plan is totally different. We had to review our indicators. There are a number of indicators for which we won't be able to do that because they're entirely new. The purpose is to be more reflective of what we're doing.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Are we comfortable then that all of them are entirely new and that we don't have data from previous years?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Some of them have changed. For the ones where you don't have the tracking behind them, it's because they are new.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Okay.
Page 18 is about paying people on time. It was 36% last year, I think. Your goal is to go up to 95% by March 2019. We asked when it will reach a steady state. The Minister was honest and said, “Well, we don't know.” I accept that, but it looks like in your departmental plan, you're saying March 2019 for a steady state of 95%.
Is that aspirational? Is that kind of a “best of,” or is it, “Hey, we're going to achieve this”?
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
That would be aspirational, for those service standards that have been published, particularly for maternity, parental, and disability benefits.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
It doesn't state that for maternity. It states for overall—
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
No, but as an example, the service standard is to process those transactions within the published service standard, 95% of the time.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Is it realistic then to set a goal like that, which apparently we're not going to be able to keep, if it's aspirational?
It would be fantastic, and I would congratulate you if you could get to 95% of pay being done on time. It would be a steady state, and the Minister could answer correctly, “That's when we'll hit a steady state.” She said we couldn't.
What's the point of setting up aspirational goals? Should there not be an actual goal we should be aiming for, so we can measure it?
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
That target is one that has been in place and will continue to be in place. We need to manage our work to be able to move as close to that as we can, as quickly as we can, to reflect a steady state.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Are there other items in the departmental plan that are completely unrealistic, then?
I'll be honest. As a parliamentarian, I find that misleading. If you state that your goal is 95%, it's not a true.... That's like me saying, “Well, my goal is to do a marathon in 50 minutes.” I know there's no way that's going to happen. I should set a realistic goal and publicize it.
Is it misleading to say 95%, when you're just stating, “Well, it's not going to happen.”
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Mr. McCauley, the pay one is an exception. As you know, for us to pick a number at this point would be extremely difficult. Taking the aspirational one is the best second choice.
Conservative
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Thank you very much, Mr. McCauley.
We now go to Mr. Garrison for seven minutes.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thanks to the officials for staying with us on this.
I want to follow up some of the questions that were raised earlier by Mr. McCauley, about table A2.11.
I want to try to clear things up a little. It may be only for me, but I think there are others who have this question.
There are things that are listed there for PSPC—$653 million worth of spending—and for Shared Services—$289 million of spending. That's nearly a billion dollars. Are those in the main estimates?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Those were announced in the budget. They are not in the main estimates.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
In the case of PSPC.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
When it comes to this committee voting on estimates, we're not voting on that billion dollars. Where is that billion dollars?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It's not under PSPC main estimates. It would be under TBS.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Just in the Treasury Board, in general. If members of this committee want to find out more about any of those items, things like gender-based analysis or official languages, the analysis of those items is part of the normal review of Treasury Board, but these items haven't been through Treasury Board. Has that analysis been done, and how do we find out about that?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We can certainly report on it when we draw money, and when we're here, we can tell you. At this point, they're not in the main estimates. We're at the point where these are at the budget level. We do obviously have a very good sense of what they are, but it's not finalized.