Government Operations Committee on Nov. 8th, 2018

Evidence of meeting #152 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 year.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Supplementary Estimates (A), 2018-19: Vote 1a under Canada School of Public Service, Vote 1a under Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board, Vote 1a under Department of Public Works and Government Services, Vote 1a under Privy Council Office, Vote 1a under Public Service Commission, Votes 1a and 5a under Shared Services Canada and Votes 1a, 10a and 15a under Treasury Board Secretariat

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Kathleen Fox Chair, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board

Matthew Shea Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office

Jean Laporte Chief Operating Officer, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board

Taki Sarantakis President, Canada School of Public Service

Patrick Borbey President, Public Service Commission

Eva Jacobs Director General, Finance and Administration, Public Service Commission

5 p.m.

President, Canada School of Public Service

Taki Sarantakis

In terms of why it's in the supplementary estimates (A), it's simply because it didn't make it in time for the main estimates. As such, in order for us to actually spend the money this year, we have to come before you today, as part of your process, to get that on our reference levels.

5 p.m.

Liberal

Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON

Well, I'm glad we've spent more than 25 minutes talking about $100,000.

I appreciate your coming to committee.

Mr. Borbey, unlike in previous committee meetings, I'm not going to ask you about how you're doing on hiring millennials, so you're off the hook this time.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

November 8th, 2018 / 5 p.m.

President, Public Service Commission

Patrick Borbey

My annual report—

5 p.m.

Liberal

Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON

He's prepared.

5 p.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

5 p.m.

President, Public Service Commission

Patrick Borbey

My annual report will address that, and I'd be happy to come back.

5 p.m.

Liberal

Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON

I have a quick question for you.

5 p.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

5 p.m.

Liberal

Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON

You were saying that you received many queries to the pod from employees saying that they don't trust the system. How many have you had on the CRA?

The CRA has been a major problem for some of my employees, who complain to me that because they have been overpaid or there's been a pay problem, the CRA has come after them. How have you coordinated with the CRA to ensure that employees don't face that harassment from the CRA?

5 p.m.

President, Public Service Commission

Patrick Borbey

This has been an issue over the last two years. We've worked collectively and closely with the CRA to better coordinate, to make sure that at the end of the day there are fewer problems. I know, for example, that the T4 issue has been resolved this year. People were getting surprises through their T4s at the last minute. I think that's been largely resolved. We're hoping that it's going to be much smoother this year.

5 p.m.

President, Canada School of Public Service

Taki Sarantakis

There are two things. The first is general. With respect to Phoenix and the CRA, you're much better off being underpaid than overpaid. If you're underpaid, we can fix that, as organizations, quickly. If you're overpaid, it's far, far more complicated.

What we did when I was at the Treasury Board Secretariat and what we're going to do this year at the school is that if any of our employees are caught in the situation of being in an overpayment, which is a very difficult situation, we're actually going to have on-site tax assistance to help them navigate the system. We did that last year at TBS. It helped about 22 people, and they were inordinately grateful.

5 p.m.

Liberal

Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON

Thank you.

5 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski

Thank you very much.

Gentlemen and lady, I know this is a bit of a truncated meeting, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate your attendance.

To all of my colleagues, I hope you have a good Remembrance Week full of events.

The meeting is adjourned.