Evidence of meeting #14 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 buildings.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
So the review by the defence minister is ongoing. What that decision will be, I don't know at this point.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
Okay: so the fact that your party promised during the election not to buy F-35s wouldn't preclude your government from procuring them now.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
I will not make any kind of declaration on what we will or won't do. Obviously the defence review is an important component of what the Minister of Defence is looking at right now in terms of what the needs are for Canada in terms of its defence.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
The Phoenix pay system seems to have many problems. Some federal employees have gone for months without pay. Some departments have had to start issuing emergency cheques. Employees of the RCMP depot in my riding have contacted my office about problems getting paid. What actions have you taken to resolve this issue and ensure that the government pays our public servants correctly and on time?
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
I appreciate your question. It's of concern to all of us when employees go without getting paid.
We've been working very hard. As I said earlier, we have gone through 1.2 million transactions. We have 77 outstanding files, but over 500 have been solved. We want to make sure that no employee goes without being paid, but as with any system, when you're doing away with one system and introducing another one, there are bound to be issues. That doesn't mean that employees should have to go without pay. That's why the emergency measures were put in place, to try to take care of that.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
Sure. You've kind of focused on the relatively small number of outstanding files. I wonder if part of the reason for that may be that employees can't actually get through to your call centre.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
We have put additional resources into the call centre. We have sent additional people there to work with the permanent staff of the call centre, trying to ensure that every call gets responded to and every issue dealt with. We are staying on top of that. Tomorrow is another payday, so we'll know better tomorrow in terms of.... We'll of course have more than 1.2 million transactions come tomorrow.
So we're staying on top of it. We're getting a weekly report of what the issues are, if there are new issues arising, and how we're dealing with them in an expeditious way.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
Knowing what you know now, do you think it was a good thing that the Government of Canada adopted this Phoenix pay system?
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
Absolutely. I mean, the 40-year-old pay system had become ineffective. After a while, most IT systems need to be updated. This is one that certainly needed to be. A lot of testing was done.
As you know, this was a project of the previous government. I'm told that a lot of effort went into trying to make sure that every possible issue would have been dealt with or would have been tested, but then you cannot anticipate every issue that will arise.
So absolutely I think it was the right move. I can tell you from the work that's being done by the employees of the centre, and by those who are leading the file, that they're working above and beyond.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
My colleague tried to ask about the fair wages policy. He didn't have much luck, but I guess I'll try again.
I'm wondering if this policy will actually be in place and applicable for some of these infrastructure projects in the main estimates. I already asked about improvements to federal buildings, the Alaska Highway, the Esquimalt dock, the Alexandra Bridge. The federal government is moving ahead with these construction projects. Will people employed on those projects have the benefit of this modernized fair wages policy?
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
That's certainly the intention, and as we work together as departments engaged in this file, it's to try to bring it to fruition as quickly as we can.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
I don't have a date for you at this point, but we are working together as departments to move this file forward.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much. We will go into the last seven-minute intervention before the minister has to leave us.
I believe we have Mr. Grewal, and you're splitting time with Madam Shanahan. Is that correct?
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. You can split, I believe, two to three minutes at the end. Just let us know.
Thank you, Minister, for coming, and all your officials as well.
Minister, small businesses are so important to the Canadian economy, and a lot of small businesses want to get involved in the government procurement system. Our current procurement system is very complex and difficult for small businesses to navigate; the tendering process is onerous and time-consuming and challenging. What can we do to improve that and make it more accessible for our small businesses?
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
Like you, I recognize the value of small businesses to our economy. When you look at the number of people employed throughout the country, a significant number of those are employed through small and medium-sized enterprises.
We're working very hard to modernize procurement. We're working very hard to make sure that everyone has access to government procurement. We are recognizing that we buy everything from pencils to ships to jets, and so there are components of procurement that the small and medium-sized enterprises can avail themselves of, and there's no reason why, on the larger files, that those who are able to take advantage of those, and are in a position to deliver on those, can't engage small and medium-sized enterprises via subcontracts. We're working very hard to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to take advantage of government procurement, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, which often tend to be located in rural areas of our country, as well as in the smaller urban areas.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
Asbestos is a big problem, and for years Canadian workers and employees and visitors to public buildings have been exposed to it. You mentioned in your opening statement that we're doing an inventory. As the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, you recently banned—
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
—asbestos in new builds and renovations in PSPC buildings. Can you tell me where we are at in preparing an inventory of all federal buildings that contain asbestos?
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
We are very concerned about any amount of asbestos that may exist in government-owned buildings, or buildings that government leases. That's why we're doing the inventory. I think that by the end of the summer, we should in fact have that inventory completed. Our priority is to make sure that our employees in particular, and anyone who visits those buildings, are not exposed to asbestos. From the perspective of Public Services and Procurement Canada, we took the lead right away to say that we were going to do everything we could to make sure that in new builds, we would not include in our RFPs the requirement, or somebody would not be able to come to the table saying they were going to be using asbestos. We are looking at our leased buildings as well.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
In terms of the inventory that's going to be assessed, will they be tracking what buildings contain asbestos, or will there be an action plan implemented to ensure that they are brought up to standard or are removed?