Was that it?
Evidence of meeting #158 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 system.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #158 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 system.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
I would like a procedural clarification, Mr. Chair. Was this a motion given on notice, or is this the notice now that we're receiving? I'm not familiar with this motion.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
The normal 48 hours' notice had not been given, but this would be considered, in my opinion—and I have consulted with the clerk on this—about the subject at hand. In other words, if you are introducing a motion about a subject that is currently being discussed or debated—which this seems to be, particularly since we've had questions on defence procurement from both the government and the opposition side—I consider this motion to be in order.
Pardon me, Mr. McCauley?
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I just have one comment to make, and then I'll relinquish the floor.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
The floor is yours, Mr. McCauley.
I'm looking for a speaker. We have Mr. Peterson on the speakers list next.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
As I mentioned, we don't want to make this project-specific, but an overall review. We've heard from the minister that she supports such a study. I would hope the government members agree that we can move forward with this very important issue.
I relinquish the floor.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to move that debate be now adjourned on this motion.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
The motion to adjourn the debate is in order, which requires an immediate vote.
(Motion agreed to)
We have about 12 minutes left before the minister has to go. We are now, on the speakers list, at Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Peterson, you have five minutes.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the minister and our other witnesses' being here today.
When Mr. McCauley started his last round, he asked a question dealing with DND and PBO communications, I think, and you weren't able to answer or weren't given the opportunity to answer. I wonder if you have an answer now, and if you'd like to answer. Otherwise, we can....
Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility
I had answered previously that I didn't recall being asked that, but I certainly can be corrected on that, and we will definitely.... I don't understand why there's information discrepancy, but we'll figure that out, for sure.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay, thank you for that. I just wanted to make sure we had that clarified.
I'm going to talk a bit about the estimates and the request for some money for Shared Services. There's a $125-million request, and I think almost $98 million of that deals with projects that have been characterized as mission-critical to Government of Canada IT operations. Taking a step back on that, who makes the assessment on whether something is mission-critical or not?
Ron Parker President, Shared Services Canada
The mission-critical applications are determined by the departments that use them, based on a set of criteria, usually around health, safety and national security.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay. Thank you for that. I just wanted to get some background on that.
Part of that is the new data centres. One of them is not far from my riding, at Base Borden. Am I to understand that these are up and running now, functional and operational?
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay. Is a portion of that money just going to the usual operations of these data centres?
President, Shared Services Canada
I'm going to ask Mr. Bombardier to cover the specific uses of those funds.
Denis Bombardier Chief Financial Officer, Shared Services Canada
The money goes toward building the infrastructure, so that's the main use of the money. After that, first it goes toward establishing the IT equipment, and then, on an ongoing basis, toward maintaining that equipment and providing the service associated with the data centres themselves.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay, thank you.
A lot of this money and this new technology is meant to provide better services to Canadians, decrease turnaround times, etc. I think the way your department measures consumer or customer satisfaction is through a survey. You mentioned a little bit in your opening statement about the customer satisfaction survey results. Can you elaborate on those and what progress they are showing, if any?
President, Shared Services Canada
Thank you for the question.
We've made real progress in terms of improving our customer satisfaction. This is really attributable to our employees and their hard work along the way.
The index of customer satisfaction is up about 30% since December 2015, from 2.79 to 3.62 in September, which reflects better service, faster service and more service to departments. For example, the volume of service requests is up roughly 20% so far this year, so demand is growing.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you for that.
Also, Minister, in your opening comments you alluded to the build in Canada innovation program, BCIP. My understanding is that it's being transferred to ISED at the end of the fiscal year.