Government Operations Committee on May 11th, 2017

[Marie Lemay]

Part of the issue is that the expertise of compensation advisers has actually dwindled—I don't want to say “disappeared”. Part of what we will have to do is find different, innovative ways to train, which is what we are doing right now. We are setting up boot camps with departments to train people. We are doing all that to build up that capacity, but it is no longer there within the government. People have been replaced or have left.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Let me understand. You are doing everything you can, and everything is in place. The only problem right now is that you can't find the skilled people to come in and do the work. That's the only problem. You can't find them.

[Marie Lemay]

I would not say it's the only problem. As I said earlier, there are multiple aspects to this. You can't reduce it to one thing.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

No, but I'm trying to identify a gap that you raised. I didn't raise it; you did. You said that you could use more staff.

[Marie Lemay]

Yes.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I'm trying to identify what the government is doing about it. What I heard you say was that you have everything in place but you can't find these people. I'm just trying to establish if that's your testimony.

[Marie Lemay]

Compensation advisers are welcome. We want to have them, so we are training people at boot camps in the departments. If there are compensation advisers in the departments, I would—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I have a funny feeling that once that's out there across the country, we're going to hear a different story.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[Marie Lemay]

It would be wonderful if we could get them, if there are people.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Okay, we'll go to the next round. We'll probably end up with one full round, and then we'll play it by ear.

We'll go with Mr. Ayoub, for seven minutes.

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

Thank you again.

Switching topics, I want to talk about the service agreements with the YMCA in Montreal's Complexe Guy-Favreau.

You recently entered into a lease agreement with the organization. Ten years ago now, the previous government gradually withdrew funding from the centre, which serves people in vulnerable situations in Montreal. I would like to know more about the agreement.

The community centre serves a varied clientele, 33% of whom are immigrants. One in three residents lives in poverty or has a low income. That is extremely important. I think the centre's management is quite happy about the temporary one-year agreement.

I would still like to know more about the negotiations and what stage the plan is at. Could you please tell us more?

[Marie Lemay]

As you know, we apply the Treasury Board rules when we negotiate the leases. Unless I'm mistaken, there was a 10-year transition to reach market value.

We reached an agreement with the group, and we're pleased about it. We're giving the group one year to determine how it can restructure or find ways to meet the standards.

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

Are you helping these people?

Do they give you a plan, or do they ask you to trust them if they submit a new plan that enables them to become independent within a year?

[Marie Lemay]

Our teams were in contact with them as part of the negotiation. That said, the YMCA group must do most of the work. These people must determine how to meet the obligations. However, we'll be pleased to speak with the group's representatives if we can guide them.

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

So there's nothing planned for the future if things don't work in the last year.

I'll now move on to the translation bureau, which obviously plays a very important role in meeting the linguistic needs of Parliament and the federal government as a whole.

The government is committed to renewing the translation bureau and to creating a centre of excellence ready to embrace innovation, adopt leading-edge practices and recruit the best in class. Ms. Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, announced and detailed a plan for investing in the translation bureau in 2017.

I want you to talk about these investments and to provide more details. I also want you to update us on the status of the plan's implementation.

Since we're only at the beginning, there must still be a number of tasks to accomplish. Is that true? What remains to be done?

Lastly, can you provide an overview of the situation?

[Marie Lemay]

As you can likely imagine, the translation bureau's workload has increased significantly in the past year. We still have a great deal to do, given the minister's announcement. The selection of the bureau's president and CEO was very important. The president and CEO will give the bureau a boost and provide leadership.

I'm happy to tell you that we announced the appointment of Stéphan Déry two days ago. The position was open externally and internally, which isn't always the case in the federal government. Moreover, the selection committee included a colleague from Canadian Heritage and a person from the outside. We wanted to attract a range of strong candidates and carry out a rigorous selection process. We're very pleased that Mr. Déry was chosen. He'll start working after the May long weekend.

One of his first tasks will be to select the chief quality officer, as announced by the minister. It's very important, given that the translation bureau will be focusing on service quality in the future, and all the investments will be made in that area.

In terms of students, you know what the minister announced. We'll follow up on that.

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

Is the goal still to hire 50 students a year?

[Marie Lemay]

Yes, that's the minimum. I'll have to check whether we've managed to surpass that goal.

Next time, I'll be happy to share how we've progressed since the arrival of the new president and CEO.

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

Thank you.

My next question concerns Shared Services Canada.

Page 16 of the departmental plan mentions five risk factors faced by all departments. You should probably discuss these factors with people from all the departments in order to fully address them. In another meeting, we discussed the secure tendering process, which, for national security reasons, is less transparent.

Does this apply to an IT transformation?

[Ron Parker]

The security measures apply to all Shared Services Canada's purchases. The staff security review also applies to all employees, based on the nature of their work.

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

I imagine that it's a very comprehensive process. Certain IT systems are aging. Many changes have been made in this area. Cybersecurity and IT security services are sensitive, and we consider them risk factors. You may need to make purchases that aren't disclosed for national security reasons.

[Ron Parker]

All our procurement activities are public.

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

100% of them!

[Ron Parker]

Yes, all of them.