Government Operations Committee on March 9th, 2017

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Mr. McCauley, you have 15 seconds.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It was wonderful to have you again.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Mr. Ayoub, you have the floor for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

I just want to mention that Brian and Marcia, and actually our team at Treasury Board, the knowledge that they have of these individual.... As President of the Treasury Board, I continue to be amazed on a daily basis with their capacity and their grasp, on a very granular basis, across government departments and agencies.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Mr. Ayoub, you have the floor for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. We note that you are always very enthusiastic when the time comes to answer questions. We thank you very much.

My first question is about the Canada Border Services Agency.

The Canada Border Services Agency is asking for $85.5 million to maintain the level of service and integrity of border operations. Is this related to what is currently happening south of the border, or is this simply from a trade perspective? There is the whole trade side, but there is also the issue of threats. It seems that the threat of terrorism causes operational pressure on the daily activities of the CBSA.

I'd like to know how these funds will ensure that the services and security of our borders will be maintained. Could you tell us more about that?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Thank you very much for your question, Mr. Ayoub.

Clearly, the security and integrity of our borders are essential priorities for our government. These funds will allow them to maintain frontline service levels and monitoring of high-risk export goods that leave Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency is facing increasingly acute operational pressure. It must deal with an increase in the number of travellers, threats related to terrorism and organized crime, as well as an increase in international trade.

For some time there have been operational pressures at CBSA. The global environment is not getting any simpler, so we're making investments that reflect operational challenges that have existed for some time in order to strengthen the operational effectiveness of CBSA.

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

Can we foresee those investments renewed next year or are they temporary investments?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Again, they reflect something that has not developed overnight. They reflect what has been a growing need within the CBSA operationally, and these help address those.

International threats are going to continue to increase. We have to be ready to deal with those threats and respond to international requests.

It is difficult to predict exactly where we will need to invest, but it is certain that we will continue to have to assess situations and ensure that we have the necessary resources to protect the integrity of our borders.

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

Thank you, Minister.

I have about one minute left. I'd like to quickly discuss services in both official languages; obviously in one minute we cannot have an in-depth discussion.

In your report, in the part discussing priority 5, you refer to the workforce that will be needed for the future, and to official languages. One reads that: “Making bilingual services available when and where required is challenging”. I think this is important. What disturbs me is the part where it says it “is challenging”. I think that ensuring that bilingual services are offered constitutes an obligation, even if it can be challenging, indeed.

A little further, one reads this: “The report indicated that most federal institutions continued to ensure that communications [...] were offered [...]”. If you write “most federal institutions”, this leads me to believe that some of them did not continue to provide bilingual services, although we must ensure that all federal institutions offer them.

I have not done in-depth research on the rest, but I would like to make sure that on your side you are aware of the fact that bilingual services really must be provided across the board. I think you are, but I want to make sure that you are well aware of that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Unfortunately, since you're over, we will not have time for an answer.

Mr. McCauley, you have five minutes, please.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I have a couple of questions. The $178-million writeoff for student loans, I'm wondering how that compares to past years. Mr. Pagan probably knows that. Is this a change because of a change in our policy on the writeoffs? I understand we've had changes on grants, etc. Does this reflect any of the changes, or is it just bad debt? Have we changed any of our procedures for collecting the money?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Thank you for the question, Kelly.

It represents about 1% of total student loans outstanding. It is in line with previous years. It is about the same. It's comparable. It hasn't actually changed significantly.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

You've answered my question.

Let me go to the access to information. I think it's wonderful that we're improving our access to information. I know there's some money in there. What will that be for? Is it for more manpower to speed up the access? Is it for legislative changes? Can you give me an idea in about one minute? My associate Mr. Gourde would like to ask a question.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Sure. There are a couple of things. One is that we made some changes last spring in terms of access to information by eliminating all fees except for the basic $5 application fee. We've eliminated all the fees.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm still paying those fees.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Pardon me?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm still paying those fees.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Well, $5 is better than something significantly higher, but beyond that, we're also committing to “open by default” as a principle and putting materials in more user-friendly formats on the website.

One of the things we want to move towards is more proactive disclosure. In terms of getting information and government sharing information with the public—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Would the money be used to speed up answers?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Pardon me?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Will the money be used to speed up replies or add bodies to speed up replies?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Concerning access to information, the act took effect in 1982. What we're looking at is some significant improvements in this.

There are two kinds of regimes involved. One is that of access to information requests. We're always conscious of the importance of responding in a timely manner. The other is moving towards more proactive disclosure, which is more consistent with the principle of “open by default”. I personally like the idea of putting more information out there in user-friendly formats. A portion of the resources you're speaking of will actually go to help accomplish that.

I'm going to ask Yaprak to continue, because she has some specifics.

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

This money will be used for reviewing the Access to Information Act, which is a government commitment. It is also for developing a central website where Canadians can submit access to information requests, which does help.