Evidence of meeting #20 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was advertising.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Mr. Matthews, if I could interrupt—and I apologize for that—could you move your microphone slightly away from your mouth? We're getting a bit of feedback. That should work.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Is that better, Mr. Chair?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Thank you.
To answer the question in terms of future planning for official residences, it's a better question for the National Capital Commission, in terms of what they would bring forward. Obviously, the grand headlines would be to do an assessment, plan a project, get the blessing for the funding, and then you would see them through the estimates.
However, there's nothing in these estimates for official residences.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
We'll now go to Madame Vignola.
You have six minutes.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you to Mr. Matthews and the other officials who are here with us today.
I'd like to talk about the national medical research strategy fund. We are talking about $406 million for research, vaccines, therapy, clinical trials and biomanufacturing.
How much of that amount is already committed?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
In terms of PSPC and the $500 million that is being sought through these estimates, we are basically planning to spend that money on things like charters, some PPE, logistics support, both overseas as well as in Canada, and then some respiratory care units as well.
It's largely already in the works, through contracts.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Of the $500 million we are seeking, I cannot give an exact answer, because time will tell in terms of how it gets spent. The vast majority of PPE that was purchased initially was coming from overseas, obviously contracts for in-country logistics, as well as some support for some overseas logistics, but the majority would be international.
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I was really talking about research, vaccines, therapy, clinical trials and biomanufacturing, not personal protective equipment. I am talking about the $406 million for the national medical research strategy.
Is any part of this category already committed to research and vaccines?
What proportion is spent here in Canada?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Mr. Chair, I'm afraid that question would be better asked of a different department. PSPC is only here on the $500 million for PPE. The questions that the member is asking are probably better suited for the Public Health Agency or Health Canada.
Lisa Setlakwe Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Social Development Policy, Privy Council Office
Mr. Chair, it's Lisa Setlakwe from PCO.
I agree with what my colleague Mr. Matthews just said about these questions being better addressed to other departments, but I can say that some of the money has been allocated to organizations like SSHRC—the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council—and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
That money is being deployed to conduct a variety of research. I couldn't give full details on that, but vaccines are part of that roster of research. The money is being deployed toward efforts like that.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Social Development Policy, Privy Council Office
I couldn't tell you what the proportion is, but there's a lot happening in Canada.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
I'm going to address the other witnesses.
The Department of Public Works and Government Services is seeking additional funding of $203.46 million in vote 1a for operating expenditures.
How will these funds finance the government payroll system?
Les Linklater Associate Deputy Minister, Human Resources-to-Pay Stabilization, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Thank you for your question.
We have a long-term plan to stabilize the payroll system, including the salaries of public servants who have been hired to support our efforts. We have also set aside funds to stabilize the system itself and to work with departments to improve data capture.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
How many additional staff did you hire to help you out with the payroll system?
Associate Deputy Minister, Human Resources-to-Pay Stabilization, Department of Public Works and Government Services
When the Phoenix system came into effect, our workforce was about 550 people, whereas now it's over 2,500. That's about 2,000 more people.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
All in all, that's 2,000 more people than expected.
Has the situation created by COVID-19 affected the processing of data or payroll transactions on Phoenix, or have things improved as a result of teleworking, among other things? All options are possible.
Associate Deputy Minister, Human Resources-to-Pay Stabilization, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Given that we have...
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Mr. Linklater, I'm afraid we'll have to get you to respond to that question in writing, directly to our clerk. We're completely out of time. My apologies.
We'll now go to Mr. Blaikie.
It's good to see you again, Mr. Blaikie. You have six minutes.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be back with you.
With respect to the advertising money for the PCO, I'm curious to know how much of that money will be spent for developing advertising products in-house and how much of that the government envisions contracting out to private companies.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Communications and Consultations, Privy Council Office
I don't have a breakdown for you. I can get that to the committee. I will say that $2.9 million of the funding goes toward the PCO COVID response team. As part of that team, we work with our behavioural science folks in PCO. We work with our own in-house team to be able to work with both the Public Health Agency of Canada and Finance Canada on the ad campaigns. In every ad campaign we do with the Government of Canada, we do use the agency of record to place the media buys. That is Cossette Media. We use them on a regular basis for all of the buys we do.
I could get back to you on what the in-house capacity is. The Public Health Agency of Canada and Finance have teams that work with us very closely on advertising.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Sure. I would appreciate a breakdown, particularly with respect to the money that's being requested here in the supplementary estimates.
I also want to ask about this. I know that it's the government's ad policy that ad campaigns over $250,000 are reviewed by a third party. There are exemptions in some cases for emergent public health advertising campaigns, but the request, even just in the supplementary estimates, is larger than the $250,000 threshold by a couple of orders of magnitude.
I'm wondering what the opinion of the government is with respect to these advertising dollars and the campaigns they'll fund, and whether or not those are campaigns that the government would submit to third party review.
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Communications and Consultations, Privy Council Office
Yes, you're correct. The $250,000 threshold is the threshold above which they have to go to the ASC, but many departments can use the ASC for ad campaigns that are below that threshold as well, and quite often we find that happening. I would submit that for the Public Health Agency of Canada advertising and the Finance advertising, we have gone to the ASC for both of those, and we will—