Government Operations Committee on June 11th, 2018

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

The authority here is only for this fiscal year, and we've just heard that it will lapse at the end of the year. How is it we can end a sunset provision with a vote that ends at the end of the year?

Wouldn't it make more sense to incorporate this money into your regular departmental estimates so that it can be part of a regular vote, or could government not seek statutory authority in order to have that become statutorily allocated money as opposed to having it come back to Parliament for a vote every year?

[Roger Scott-Douglas]

I think Mr. Pagan is going to answer that.

[Brian Pagan]

That's exactly what's going to happen. The department is accessing the funding this year through the central vote, and in future years, because it's permanent funding, it will be part of the department's main estimates and will be reflected in the departmental plans automatically.

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

Okay. You can appreciate the conceptual tension in allocating funds to sunsetting within a one-year vote, right?

[Brian Pagan]

For most of the initiatives in this table, there are tails in future years, so all you're seeing are the estimates authorities for this year.

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

Yes.

[Brian Pagan]

The amounts will be reflected in the main estimates in the proper votes for next year.

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

For the Department of Industry for the item—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I do have to interrupt you there. You will have an opportunity in a few moments to continue your line of questioning.

Colleagues, I'm going to suspend for a few moments now. The Treasury Board officials will, of course, stay at the table while we reset with our next round of panellists.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We will reconvene the meeting now.

Colleagues, I have some information for all of you. We will have to deal with the main estimates for the Treasury Board Secretariat at the conclusion of this meeting, so I'll be suspending this meeting probably around 12:50. We can discuss vote 40 at that time.

In the interim, we will have a group of witnesses who are with us again today. To reiterate, we have representatives from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Department of the Environment, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, the Department of Indigenous Services Canada, and the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs.

As always, we have Mr. Pagan and his officials with us as well.

Once again, we'll continue with our round of questioning, starting with a seven-minute round.

Mr. Peterson, you are first up.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate everyone being here. We have 13 or 14 departments and ministries represented at today's meeting, so it's nice to see the accessibility we're being granted as parliamentarians as we are considering voting on vote 40.

Before I get into some detailed questions about some of the department budgeting and funding, one of my colleagues earlier alluded to the debt of a province here. The estimates and the budgeting process really have no impact on the deficit or surplus. Is that correct? Isn't that more of a policy set by the government? The process we're going through today would have no impact, I think, on the deficit or surplus of a current year, would it?

[Brian Pagan]

Thank you, Mr. Peterson.

When our colleagues in the Department of Finance are setting a budget for any particular year, they look at the widest possible frame to develop their fiscal policy. They will approach a consideration of budget requests with an understanding of how decisions are going to change or impact the fiscal situation of the government. In budget 2018, the deficit and debt projections include the initiatives that are identified in the budget. Our deliberations here today have no impact on those numbers because they have already been taken into consideration by the Department of Finance at the time of setting the budget.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Great, that's what I thought too. I was just curious why anyone would raise that issue. I guess they were confused.

I'm going to the department spending.

Ms. Jordan, in budget 2018, of the $7 billion that we're talking about in vote 40, there's $21 million for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Can you elaborate on what some of that is, or where that funding is going and why it is necessary?

[Barbara Jordan, Vice-President, Policy and Programs Branch, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

We have two initiatives that are being continued. These are initiatives that were sunsetting at the end of 2017-18. One is regarding securing market access for Canadian agriculture and seafood products. Under that initiative, we have a number of FTEs responsible for advancing and resolving market access issues. We also have some funding in there to participate in the negotiation of free trade agreements. We are participating in international standards setting with the IPPC codex and the OIE. In our animal health and plant, health and food safety international standard setting bodies, we are represented there to ensure that Canada's interests are pursued.

Some of the funding is also for improving food safety. We're very active there in terms of assessing risks, so that we can adjust our programming going forward, to produce risk profiles and adjust our program based on our changing risk landscape. We are also adjusting our inspection activities based on data that we are gathering on risk in individual establishments. We are undertaking offshore prevention activities. We are sending missions abroad so that they can assess foreign food safety systems and also share best practices with some of our trading partners.

The last item in terms of improving food safety is undertaking a lot of activity so we can promote compliance with our food safety regulations. We have new regulations coming on stream in the very near future. We want to ensure that we have the highest degree of compliance with our new food safety regulations.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

When you say “promote compliance”, would that be reaching out to stakeholders, educating them, and informing them of new procedures?

[Barbara Jordan]

We are reaching out to stakeholders. We are producing a lot of plain language materials and online tools that stakeholders will have access to. We have set up a database of information for our stakeholders. We have rolled out a service called Ask CFIA, so that stakeholders can call in and ask questions and be well-informed of the new regulations.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

As Canadians enter new free trade agreements and market access—you said some of the funding is for market access—how do you build in contingencies when you're doing the budget, while not necessarily knowing when certain agreements are going to come into force, and things of that nature?

[Barbara Jordan]

On market access issues, once free trade agreements are signed, a process kicks in so that we can work with individual countries and negotiate terms for trading plant products, and animal health and food products. We work with stakeholders and set priorities for market access issues, and assess which markets are most important to our stakeholders. The priority-setting process is an annual process. Then we work through the market access issues in concert with our regulated parties.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you.

I appreciate your answer. Thank you for that.

How much time do I have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have one minute.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'm going to move to the Department of the Environment. Ms. Fernando is with us.

Again, the amount of your budget funding under vote 40 is close to $72 million. Can you elaborate on what a lot of that is going to and essentially why we parliamentarians should approve it?

[Dilhari Fernando, Director General, Policy, Planning and Partnerships Directorate, Meteorological Service of Canada, Department of the Environment]

To be precise, I believe there are three different elements of vote 40. I can really only speak to one element, and that is with regard to weather and water services, which is really about modernizing Canada's weather forecasting system, improving the backbone to how we forecast weather and how we disseminate weather, and ensuring that Canadians have access to the best possible products, that is, the most precise and accurate information with the most lead times in terms of weather forecasting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Kelly, you have seven minutes, please.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It was entertaining to hear Mr. Peterson continue to defend the fiscal governance model of the Government of Ontario less than a week after that government was completely run out of—not quite completely, but down to seven seats, I guess. The point, I think, is that fiscal governance and overall fiscal health of a polity are indeed interconnected.

We had testimony in previous panels about how items that had gone through the Treasury Board Secretariat process since the table was prepared for us have exceeded the amounts in the table that we haven't even voted on yet. I would submit that governance models do count, and they do affect overall fiscal health.

I'll go to the departments we have here. We heard again on May 22 that most vote 40 items had not gone through the Treasury Board submission, but we have been told that they are continuing to work through and that this is an ongoing process, so now we have a variety of departments here, and I'd like to ask some of the individuals from different departments which of their items have been through the Treasury Board process now.

I'll start with Ms. Jordan and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Of your $22.5 million under vote 40, how much of that has been vetted through Treasury Board now?

[Barbara Jordan]

It has been vetted through Treasury Board.