Government Operations Committee on March 7th, 2017

[Kami Ramcharan]

What I could suggest is that in our departmental report for last year we were talking about getting ready for the eventual move to the extended data centres that Shared Services Canada is developing. That's why it's not done right away. We have to look at all our applications, look at our data—

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

Is November 2017 still the timeline you're working towards, or has that changed?

[Kami Ramcharan]

I think that has changed. I don't think we're going to be able to get there by November 2017, but we're trying to do the best we can.

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

Is it through Shared Services Canada that this work is being done?

[Kami Ramcharan]

Yes, absolutely.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

To complete our first round, we'll go to Mr. Weir for a three-minute intervention, please.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thanks very much.

I felt that Mr. Whalen was on the right track there, asking about the supplementary estimates for democratic reform. Ms. Ramcharan, you made the point, of course, that you have an estimate in the budget of how much you're going to seek and then you can come forward with a more precise amount through the Treasury Board submission. I wonder if you could tell us how the amount we're looking at today, the $3.8 million, compares with the amount that was budgeted originally.

[Kami Ramcharan]

If I recall correctly, the amount that was sought in budget 2016 for this initiative was going to be over a four-year term. What we provided for initially in our Treasury Board submission was before we would have known the results of the conversations with regard to democratic reform, or within a very short period of time between the results being known and our Treasury Board submission. What we ended up getting, in essence, was only one year of funding related to the democratic reform. We would have sought a longer period of funding in our Treasury Board submission, but what Treasury Board ministers gave us was one year, with the opportunity, as we better understand what our next steps would be, to potentially go back and seek the additional money in a subsequent Treasury Board submission.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Okay. Can you make any kind of comparison between the amount that was originally envisioned and the amount that was actually spent? Even if it was over four years, presumably there was some kind of accounting of how much per year.

[Kami Ramcharan]

There is. Unfortunately I don't have the details with me, but I can definitely get back to the committee.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Yes. If you could come back with a written response on that, I think it would be of great interest to the committee.

[Kami Ramcharan]

Sure.

[Serge Dupont]

I would add that what has been spent this fiscal year is what was projected to be spent this fiscal year on the exercise.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Okay, fair enough. That's exactly what I was asking.

[Serge Dupont]

It's not over or under budget. It's pretty well on budget.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Would it be fair to say, then, that all along the plan included this mailout to all households in Canada?

[Serge Dupont]

It did not necessarily include all the modalities, but essentially a budget had been set to reach out to Canadians, and those were ultimately the amounts that were expended on it.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Fair enough. Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have about 30 seconds.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Okay. Don't worry about it, then.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

All right.

Colleagues, we'll go into round two. As I said, I'll need about 15 minutes at the end of this meeting to deal with some committee business. We won't have enough time for a complete round, but I think we can have a full seven-minute round and then two questions, one each from the government and the Conservatives on the five-minute round.

We'll start off with Mr. Peterson, for seven minutes, please.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank everyone for being here this morning and for the work you put into preparing for today, and frankly the work you do for Canada on a daily, ongoing basis. Thank you for your commitment to that.

There are just a few questions I want to touch on here. If I may, I'll make a bit of a comment. Frankly, it's kind of shocking that any member of Parliament would think it's a waste of time or resources or money to consult Canadians. I think that's the fundamental role of a member of Parliament, so any effort we can make to consult Canadians I think is something that should be lauded and not critiqued. That's certainly the way I look at my role as a member of Parliament, being able to hear what Canadians think. Frankly, if we can do that in an effective and efficient manner, it's certainly incumbent upon us to do so.

I think that was done during the MyDemocracy.ca exercise with the expense of $3.8 million. Every Canadian had the chance to participate. Members might think 360,000 is a small number of Canadians to consult with, but that's probably 360,000 more than were consulted in the decade before, so I think it's quite an achievement. The old consultation was to walk down to the PMO and that's where you would consult, so we've moved away from that regime I think.

But I want to talk about another component of the PCO's estimates here, and it's the smaller part, the roughly $150,044 for access control and physical security projects to strengthen the Privy Council's Office security infrastructure. I just wonder if you can elaborate on that. A lot of these are new terms to me, and maybe some of my colleagues, so could you elaborate on the details of what that program is?

[Serge Dupont]

Sometimes, Mr. Chair, the unfortunate part of our business is that we introduce new terms, but for things that members would readily recognize. Essentially it's when you go, for example, through a security gate that's automatic with a pass that you can flash so the gates open and you can come in. That is in part what we are talking about here.

Essentially, for the Privy Council Office we have altogether in the perimeter around Langevin 11 buildings. We are trying to modernize and ensure that we have state-of-the-art security systems for access to these buildings. What we're doing now, and it's going to continue on next year, is the beginning of the process this year. We do have to do planning, procurement, and implementation for this access control and physical security project. That's door-access control systems, which means there's software, of course, supported by servers. There's a control panel. There are card readers and there are cards that will be issued to Privy Council Office employees and so forth, and that is simply to bolster the security of the perimeter. That access control is part of a broader exercise to ensure that the Privy Council Office, and of course the Office of the Prime Minister, can work in a very secure environment.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'm just wondering why this is in the supplementary estimates and wasn't planned ahead of the game.

[Serge Dupont]

Again, we had monies put forward or announced in budget 2016. Some of the monies were secured in supplementary estimates (A), and others in supplementary estimates (B). This is a relatively small amount for this fiscal year, and therefore was carried into supplementary estimates (C). There's no particular reason for it. Those are going to be, as I indicated, a carry-over to the next fiscal year of this project.