Government Operations Committee on May 8th, 2020

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

The number of Government of Canada office buildings is quite amazing. If more and more people are looking at the option of continuing to work from home, what will be done with those buildings if they are used less and less?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Minister, please keep your answer very brief, if possible.

[Jean-Yves Duclos]

Yes, this will be a very short answer: it is an important issue that we will certainly want to consider after the crisis.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay. It's an issue to watch.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Mr. Green for six minutes.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Honourable Minister, are there collective agreements currently expired for which negotiations have been temporarily suspended because of COVID-19? If so, how many agreements are there and how many employees are affected?

[Jean-Yves Duclos]

As you already know, and it's worth repeating, we are extremely grateful—and “we” includes all Canadians—for the hard work that public servants do all the time, particularly in the context of the difficult crisis that we are living through.

There are currently 35 agreements signed with public servants, covering about 70,000 employees, and we are continuing our important work with the remaining bargaining agents so that we can conclude agreements for all public service employees.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Certainly we're all in support of the public workers. I can't imagine what it's like for public sector workers who've been without a contract for quite some time.

For those contracts that have expired, how long have they been expired, and what is the estimated liability in the federal accounts for any outstanding payback that might be accrued or owed to the affected employees?

[Jean-Yves Duclos]

For the precise answers to your questions, which I believe you deserve to get, I will turn to Nancy for the length of time that we have been engaged in discussions, dating to when those agreements expired, and any other related matters.

[Nancy Chahwan]

Thank you, Minister.

I thank the member for his question.

The last round of collective agreements took us until the summer of 2018, for the vast majority of collective agreements, and we have been at the table ever since bargaining agents signalled their intent to launch the process.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

As it relates to the outstanding payback that is accrued or owed, can you expand on that, please?

[Nancy Chahwan]

Yes. I don't have the precise numbers. I'm not sure if Glenn Purves is on the call with us, given the technical difficulties, but if not, we can send that information after the call. However, I can say—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Sure. I will go on to the next question, just because my time is limited.

According to the Government of Canada InfoBase, as of March 31, 2019, the federal public service comprised just under 288,000 employees. Permanent or indeterminate employees account for 83% of the federal public service, term employees for 11%, casual employees for 3% and students for 3%.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the number of term, casual and student employees in the federal public service?

[Jean-Yves Duclos]

It's a very good question. I know some of the answers. However, I would prefer to turn to Nancy for more complete answers.

[Nancy Chahwan]

Thank you, Minister.

We don't have an indication that the composition per se would have changed. There is some lag for us to get the numbers, but what I can tell you is that with regard to the term, indeterminate and casual employees, we have made sure that people were as productive as they could be, using telework, as we discussed before.

As for students, we know that there has been a significant drop in referrals compared to last year. The Public Service Commission is responsible for the programs for student recruitment. They and Treasury Board Secretariat have worked together to make sure that our students are provided with a good opportunity to contribute to resolving the crisis and to help us as we work on recovery.

This is important for our students. It can affect their graduation, but this would also allow us access to a qualified workforce that typically continues and forms la relève and—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

My apologies, but I'm really interested in getting to the heart of the matter here. I'll be watching with interest, particularly with regard to the students, given this government's reliance on the Canada summer jobs program as a way to supplement student employment. I'm hearing that there might be a shift even in our own federal government, and I'll be watching that with interest.

What will be the impact, then, of the pandemic on the composition of the federal public service in the medium to long term? I know that a lot of people are very afraid that austerity days are to come and that there will be attacks on public sector workers. I'm just wondering what the medium- and long-term impacts will be on composition.

[Jean-Yves Duclos]

If I may, I will step in. As Nancy has said, and as you seem to be agreeing to, Mr. Green, we are going to need to look after students and our youth in the weeks and months to come, because they are going through very difficult circumstances.

Today's announcement, by the way, about the unemployment rate tells us that there is a 13% unemployment rate for all Canadians, but it is almost 35% for young Canadians. We will need to look after them, because they will be extremely important in relaunching the economy and supporting the public service in the future.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to our five-minute rounds. Go ahead, Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, you stated in the briefing document that you provided to the committee that employees working from home are responsible for safely guarding the information. How are you ensuring that there are no privacy breaches?

Also, are employees being tracked?

[Jean-Yves Duclos]

We are not only, as you say, quite mindful of the importance of maintaining the integrity of the government—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Minister, we're short on time. Can we just go to the answers, please?

[Jean-Yves Duclos]

In that case, I will turn to Francis, who would know a lot more about the various measures that have been taken.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I guess I would say there are two parts. We've increased the technological capacity for employees to work securely and remotely by increasing secure remote access and access to the VPN and by, in some instances, augmenting the capacity around things like Microsoft Office 365, which is up to protected B.

We've also reissued guidance to all employees, reminding them that they're to use only vehicles and instruments that are appropriate for the nature of the conversations they're having.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

How are we following up on that? The reason I ask is that last year we had what I understand was the very worst year in our Canadian history of privacy breaches. We had 5,000 incidents of improper storage or handling of private documents. The very worst department in the entire federal service was TBS, with over 10%, so how are we actually ensuring privacy, besides just issuing guidance?

The reason I ask is that the department, when confronted with the 10%, commented that it was merely rebriefing employees on proper safeguarding practices. What are we doing besides that?