Evidence of meeting #59 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 supplementary.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
First of all, it's absolutely essential that the NEB has the kind of support that garners the confidence of Canadians—
Liberal
Conservative
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management, Treasury Board Secretariat
Mr. McCauley, which agency are you referring to?
Conservative
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management, Treasury Board Secretariat
NEB or NRCan?
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
NEB. You can answer later. I'm sure I have only about 30 seconds left.
It has been estimated that $430,000 funding is required to support the implementation of an independent advisory board to select a new Supreme Court justice. I know we selected a very qualified one from Newfoundland. I just have to ask—$430,000 to set up an advisory board to select—I realize it's very important and we selected a phenomenal candidate from Newfoundland.
Where did that money go?
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Good government and good governance takes certain investments and the selection of a Supreme Court judge is very important. This was the first time we've had a more transparent and less opaque approach to doing this.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
The advisory group, under the leadership of former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Kim Campbell, did an excellent job. I commend Ms. Campbell and her group for having done an excellent job that resulted in Newfoundland and Labrador having its first judge on the Supreme Court. He's an exceptional candidate, I believe and—
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Minister, could I just suggest that you provide this committee with a detailed breakdown of the $400,000 and where it was spent?
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Yes, I will.
Also, in terms of the NEB amount, Kelly, we'll get you that as well.
Conservative
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Mr. McCauley, for again highlighting what a great job the committee did in hiring who I hope will be one of the best Supreme Court justices who ever gets to sit.
Mr. Brison, I want to follow on a little further on the CBC. It was an important campaign commitment that we made, and we're glad to see an extra $75-million subsidy go towards the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Do we have visibility into how much of this is going into hardware, network infrastructure, salaries, and other aspects, to make this digital technology work?
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Firstly, as you said, Mr. Whalen, this is part of our budget 2016, which reflected our platform commitment. I'm told that much of this if for the digitization efforts, including a digitization of what is a massive archive within CBC. However, that's only part of it.
We can provide you, as a member of this committee, with more detail on that. We will get back to this committee with more granular detail in terms of the Department of Heritage, or CBC, in this case, on the utilization of those funds.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
In a way, I see this as being one of the reasons why project-based estimates might be beneficial in appropriations. We would have more visibility. This is $75 million, and maybe the overall project for digitization is much larger. Parliamentarians should have insight into what the project scope is, how much is being subsidized, and how much is being provided through funds that the CBC generates from its advertising.
Is is possible for your department to provide us with project-based information?
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
We can ask CBC. You, as a parliamentarian, can ask CBC for that as well. CBC is a crown agency.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Yaprak just mentioned it as well. The heritage committee, Minister Joly, would be better positioned to answer that specific question than Treasury Board, not to say that there's not a lot of culture in Treasury Board.