Government Operations Committee on March 10th, 2016

[Ron Parker]

Mr. Chair, I'm afraid I don't have the year-over-year growth rates in front of me, but we would be happy to get the numbers for you. In terms of cybersecurity overall, I can tell you that there have been steady increments in recent years. This underscores the importance of cybersecurity overall.

As well, the department has stood up from within the overall allocation it receives. The security operation centre provides 24/7/365 monitoring of the perimeter of the attempts to penetrate the Government of Canada network. There have been very significant efforts since the creation of Shared Services to bring this forward and advance this initiative.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Along the same lines, having one network to protect makes it a little bit easier versus trying to protect 63, so we can see some real benefits from the strategy on that front. In terms of downtime when networks go down, there's a concern that, if the government network goes down, then it's not just one of 63 networks that has gone down; now everyone is down.

What types of efforts are being put into place, and from a budgetary perspective, how much effort are you devoting towards protecting our downtime? What sort of redundancy plans are being put in place? How much effort is going into making sure that uptime is maximized on this now-consolidated network?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have 20 seconds.

[Ron Parker]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The efforts are significant. We're moving from 50 siloed separate networks to one network. In the design of the network, we're paying very close attention to the redundancy and high availability of the network. That work is just starting. At this point, the contracts have been let to work on the new network, but it has not yet tangibly begun. The planning phase is under way. Those issues are front and centre. We look to have network availability that's very high.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you, Mr. Parker.

Mr. Blaney, you have five minutes, please.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister Foote, there was a troubling article in The Hill Times that Canada Post could be distributing material that is not complying with Canadian law—hate speech, and not really interesting attitudes toward minorities. Would you like to comment on this? Do you have any capability to ensure that Canada Post makes sure that the material it is distributing is complying with the law?

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Thank you for the question.

I am aware of the situation. I too have issues with the information that's being distributed, so much so that we've asked for a legal opinion on the content, to see if there's any criminal aspect to it. I am concerned about the content.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Is there any mechanism to ensure that the material being distributed overall is in compliance with Canadian law?

Or is it more on a case-by-case basis when such a thing occurs?

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

That's right. That's why we've talked to Canada Post. My understanding is that the initial....

There was one instance where they had legal advice, and it wasn't an issue that would have them withdraw it. But now that there's another piece of literature that's being disseminated, there are concerns. I too have concerns with it, and we've asked for a legal opinion.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Okay. We certainly would like to be informed of your intention regarding this certainly regrettable course of action that has been undertaken.

Second, you mentioned that we would expect Immigration to be involved, but you mentioned that you were involved in the welcoming of Syrians. Can you explain more specifically what your involvement was, and how much was invested in that operation? Is it part of your estimates? Do you expect there will be growing costs, as there's an increasing number of Syrian refugees who will arrive? Especially in terms of training and housing, are you expecting any cost increases in that regard?

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Yes. We have indicated that our request is in fact for more money to enable us to do more. Our job was actually in terms of procurement, and that was with winter jackets, housing, or anything that would be required to accommodate the refugees while they are here. We are expecting that we will need additional resources to be able to respond to more refugees coming to our country.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Okay.

My colleague has to leave, but I'd like him to be able to ask his last question before he does.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have two minutes, Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Perfect. I'll ask very quickly.

You stated, and I was very pleased for the taxpayers about Canada Post, no other taxpayers' money from the government. I agree that they have to find new revenue streams to increase their service, but can we commit that they will not be moving into areas already well served by private companies, smaller companies, or using their inherent competitive advantage to drive out already operating small businesses and other private businesses?

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Well, you know, there are some areas where Canada Post is already competitive with existing business. What we have to do, if we're going to deliver a service to Canadians, is find a way to do that. Again, Canada Post is a crown corporation and has to be self-sustainable. What other lines of business they'll be able to do, I don't know, but that's why we want to have a comprehensive, independent review, to see what the opportunities are.

I recognize the concern you raise in terms of competitiveness with small and medium-sized enterprises. I'm sure all of that will be factored into the review that's done.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Yes, but we would just like assurances that the big guy will not trample on small businesses that are already offering courier or other home delivery services right now.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

For the final five-minute round, we'll go to Monsieur Ayoub.

[Ramez Ayoub, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

Madam Minister, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today.

I need some information specifically about the process involved in requesting additional funds.

Let me give you an example. You may possibly find others if you look around. The Quebec City Armoury, on the Grande Allée, was destroyed by fire in 2008. That is eight years ago now. I see that the first funds to rebuild it, some $72 million, were approved only last year. If you take away a year, it means that it took seven years before a decision was made to rebuild the famous Quebec City Armoury. I know the building well because it is located in an area I lived in as a child.

A year later, additional funds were requested. So I am trying to find out about the budget forecasting process that led to those funds being requested. We know what the Quebec City Armoury was and what it should be. One year later, which is not very long, why is there a request for a 30% increase over the amount of $72 million? Was the planning poor to start with? Why, one year later, do you as the new minister end up with this problem on your hands?

[George Da Pont]

That actually does come up from time to time, particularly when you're renovating buildings that have significant historical features that have to be preserved.

Obviously, we do inspections of the buildings as part of setting the initial estimates and we often engage third-party experts to do that. It's not unusual when you actually start the work and you begin taking out things and you discover things that did not come out in the initial inspection.

It's not that different from homeowners doing their own project and once they get into it you, they find there are things that they had not anticipated doing, so we do have that happen from to time.

When that happens, if it cannot be covered in the initial budget that was set, you would look at supplementary funding to cover it. That's often the explanation.

[Ramez Ayoub, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Is it reasonable to say that from time to time it would be 30% over budget?

[George Da Pont]

Well—

[Ramez Ayoub, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

In all projects, there is always usually an amount identified as a contingency. My concern is that, a year later, there is request for an additional 30%. The project itself does not concern me because, of course, the Quebec City Armoury is a jewel that needs to be rebuilt. I do not know the details, but I am worried about the planning and about the fact that we have all this to deal with one year later.

[George Da Pont]

The last thing I would add is that sometimes work is distributed over two or three contracts. There is not one single contract for everything.

In this case, this is a new contract. It's not an extension of a previous contract. It does go to finding things you didn't expect and basically having not just one contract for everything but contracts for different parts of the work.

[Ramez Ayoub, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I am Syrian by origin and welcoming Syrians affects me somewhat.

Last year, the Liberal party wanted to bring in a certain number of Syrians. To start with, it was 10,000 Syrians, then another 15,000 were added for a total of 25,000. An additional amount of $5.4 million was requested to deal with the intake of those Syrians.

Will that amount be used now, or is it spread over a number of years? How is that additional amount broken down?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

A very short response, Minister.