Evidence of meeting #4 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 pco.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Is it 15? Was that 15 of those released who were hired under this special act, or is it 94 in total—it just happened to be that—and 15 under the statutory entitlement?
Acting President, Public Service Commission
Omer, do you have the specific numbers here?
Conservative
Acting President, Public Service Commission
In fact, 11 of the 15 were hired by DND. DND is probably one of the departments that rehire the most veterans or CAF-released members. Just as a reminder, some members are released because they were injured during the course of their tenure, and some are released for other medical reasons that are not related to service. There is a different level of priority.
We have two who were hired at Health Canada. As I indicated, we at the commission have as well hired some veterans to help manage the system. We know that there's continuous improvement as well.
One thing we know is that we've referred a lot more veterans, but not all veterans who have registered are necessarily without employment at this point in time. Some of them are employed but can benefit by being on the priority system and being able to look at whether or not their situation can be improved by entering into the public service. Thus, although many them have been referred, some of them choose to not follow the reference but still remain eligible for the system.
We're hopeful, as we continue to grow the communication and the outreach department and as we're able to demonstrate the positive experience and the number of skill sets these veterans and CAF-released members have, that more and more departments will start engaging in the hiring of veterans.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Yes. I understand they have a very sought-after skill set for leadership. I realize you may not have the number, so please get back to me, for Veterans Affairs, on how many were hired.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Out of this 94, can you provide as well what percentage of new hires that actually is, and how many veterans, please, have actually applied for that?
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Thank you.
You note a new car allowance for the Minister of Democratic Institutions due to the elevation from, I assume, minister of state to a full minister.
Were there any other examples of ministers of state receiving a car allowance because of an elevation or any other reasons?
Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
I'm going to ask Ms. Cahill to answer that question. She will talk about the Privy Council Office, and then perhaps a broader application.
Karen Cahill Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.
For ministers of state, the Parliament of Canada Act planned for a $2,000 motor car allowance. In previous years, PCO, the Privy Council Office, had ministers of state where we allocated and added into our estimates the $2,000 amount.
Of course, with the election, Minister Monsef is a full minister, so that's why we have added the statutory item to our supplementary estimates (C).
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I probably didn't ask the question properly. Were there any other ministers of state elevated to full minister who are receiving the added $80,000 car allowances, like that one?
Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Not for PCO.
Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Certainly across the government there was, and I think that is your question.
Those other ministers would include ministers Qualtrough, Duncan, Hajdu, and Chagger.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Thank you.
You mentioned, and several times there was mention about ensuring non-partisanship of the public service. Obviously, everyone has to work toward that.
We have seen some examples not only with a huge amount of spending by public service unions in the last election as registered by Elections Canada, but we saw an incident where the Prime Minister went into the foreign affairs building and the public service was surrounding him, all cheering, etc. A huge crowd came out.
What are you doing to ensure non-partisanship of the public service? I realize you mentioned you send out memos, you discuss with them, but what are you doing to ensure non-partisanship within the public service?
Acting President, Public Service Commission
There is part 7 of the legislation that we administer, which is very clearly dedicated to political activities and candidacy.
Over and above all of this, we are doing a lot of work with Treasury Board in the context of values and ethics. There's a very fine line when it comes to values and ethics, and also partisan activities per se.
When these things happen, we do a lot of work within the system to actually analyze what constitutes a political activity, and whether or not there's somebody who has been seen as not being able to continue to exercise their duties.
That's where the difference lies. When there's a group activity, there are a lot of things that are related to the values and ethics aspect, which basically falls within the scope of the deputy head to continue to brief and to educate the staff.
We do that as well. What we've done is gone back, and working directly with PCO have looked at continuing to inform public servants of the duty they have to act in a non-partisan manner.
When we have egregious cases, or when there are obvious...or we can identify individuals, we do have the possibility of conducting investigations to see whether or not there has been an issue of conduct and take the corrective measures that are necessary at that point.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Mr. McCauley, I think I'll cut you off there. We only have about 10 seconds left.
Mr. Weir, for seven minutes, please.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
Thanks very much.
I have a question for the Privy Council Office. You're seeking $1.6 million for the communication strategy around the economic action plan as well as to modernize the Prime Minister's digital presence.
Could you provide any kind of breakdown of the money between those two initiatives?
Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
I'm happy to do that. Let me divide it into two categories.
As I said in my opening remarks, we are asking for $1 million to complete the work under the economic action plan, which of course concluded following the election in October. That was a stand-alone website that was supported by a team of...how many FTEs, Karen? Remind me.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
For the EAP?
Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
It was four FTEs.
Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
That's what I thought.
FTE means a public servant. There were four folks who were involved in the public service in supporting that work and led I believe by a director. As I also said, that work wound down after the election and they have been retasked to support the priorities of the current government and the Prime Minister.
Then there is a piece costing $600,000, which is in support of the Prime Minister's digital presence. The Prime Minister has a Government of Canada website and other social media accounts. That's what that money is for. It operates 24-7, 365 days a year. The money will be used to hire two additional people to work on it in communications. It will be used to acquire licences, and hire a contractor to assist us in things such as live streaming and more cutting-edge technology support. We have also contributed, over the last year and a half, approximately $1 million of our own money in addition to what we're asking for today.
NDP
Erin Weir NDP Regina—Lewvan, SK
I'm wondering if you could tell us a bit about what this modernized digital presence will look like. How would the success of that initiative be judged?