Government Operations Committee on June 16th, 2020

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Following up on that question—it was a great question from my friend from the Bloc—regarding a breakdown in how, hopefully, the performance indicators will be able to report to us where this money went, I'm wondering, does your department use the GBA+? If so, how do you track where the “plus” goes, in terms of these procurement investments in advertising?

[Ken MacKillop]

On the advertising, we know that with the Public Health Agency of Canada, more than 80% of that placement was in Canadian media. There was 16% in print media, including dailies, weeklies, ethnic and aboriginal newspapers, so—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Do you have breakdowns of that, line by line?

[Ken MacKillop]

I can certainly provide that breakdown. Absolutely.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I would love to have that breakdown, as it appears would my friend from the Bloc as it relates to the French language advertisements in the province of Quebec, and, of course, all the francophone communities across the country.

What is your mandate when you do the GBA+? What policies do you have in place to ensure that the equity, diversity and inclusion of your stated procurement policies are reflected in the contracts that you procure?

[Ken MacKillop]

I imagine you're asking that question to my colleague at PSPC...for procurement government-wide.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Well, for the advertisements specifically. I have a whole other motion coming for PSPC for today.

As it relates to all of the money you were just talking about, how do we know that it's being equitably distributed across all communities?

[Ken MacKillop]

Again, when you're looking at an advertising campaign, you want to make sure you're targeting to get the desired impact of that advertising.

In many cases, it's going to be through ethnic media, if that's what you're looking at. For instance, if you're targeting something for the youth, you may go digital and you may—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I'm sorry, it sounds to me like that's the “how”; what I'm interested in is the “what”.

What have you done in this campaign to ensure that has happened? What policy can you point to, or what target or goals have your department sent, to meet the standard of gender-based analysis plus?

[Ken MacKillop]

I think I would like to get back to you on specifically the Public Health Agency of Canada campaign and their lens with GBA+, as well as Finance's campaign, because I don't have that information with me today.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

As my chair would say, I look forward to having it in writing at the appropriate time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

I will now excuse our witnesses from PCO and PSPC.

Thank you very much for your appearances here. You have been, as always, informative and helpful.

Colleagues, I will be suspending in just a few moments. Before I do, we will remain in public, because I have one item that I would like to go over with you. That is the draft budget, which all of you will have received from our clerk, for the additional costs we have incurred from conducting these Zoom meetings.

We're asking for an approval of $6,000. That will be a maximum amount. I don't think personally that we'll spend that much. The majority of that, approximately $4,500, is for the establishment of the phone lines that are required for our Zoom meetings, and $1,500 is for the headsets we have been distributing to our witnesses so that our audio levels are as good as they can be.

Colleagues, if you have any questions, please virtually raise your hand. Otherwise, I would prefer to go directly to the question and ask for your approval for this amount.

First, are there any questions?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

So moved.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much, Mr. MacKinnon.

I will now ask the clerk to go through the roll call to seek the approval of the $6,000 budget.

Mr. Clerk.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Paul Cardegna]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The budget, of course, is for the study of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a total budget amount of $6,000.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 10; nays 0)

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Colleagues, I will now suspend for just a few moments while our clerk and our technicians do sound checks for our second panel of witnesses.

As a reminder to all of you, we have not received speaking notes for the Department of Finance or the Treasury Board Secretariat, so both of those departments will be making short five-minute opening statements.

We are suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We'll reconvene, colleagues. We'll start now with a five-minute opening statement from Mr. Purves.

[Glenn Purves, Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat]

Thank you very much. I think I'm the only one who has an opening statement today.

Mr. Chair, I'm very happy to be here today to answer the committee's questions on the 2020-21 supplementary estimates (A).

As committee members know, each year the government tables two or three supplementary estimates that outline incremental spending plans to the main estimates. The current supplementary estimates (A), tabled by the president on June 2, 2020, seek approval of funding that is incremental to the 2020-21 main estimates, which were tabled this past February and which parliamentarians are currently studying.

These supplementary estimates present information on spending requirements across federal organizations that were either not sufficiently developed in time for inclusion in the main estimates or have since been updated to reflect new developments. In addition to summarizing the government's incremental financial requirements, these estimates also provide an overview of major funding requests and horizontal initiatives.

The information in the supplementary estimates ensures continued transparency and accountability on the use of public funds to deliver programs and services to Canadians. These documents give parliamentarians and this committee the opportunity to review and consider these spending amounts in advance of approving them.

They bring forward $6 billion in operating and capital expenditures, grants and contributions to be voted by Parliament for 42 federal organizations. Among these are public health and economic responses to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, support to indigenous peoples across the country, the disability insurance plan for the public service and air travel security screening.

Karen Cahill, assistant secretary and chief financial officer for the Treasury Board Secretariat, and my colleague Marcia Santiago are happy to answer questions on any items should committee members have any.

In total in these supplementary estimates, voted spending measures represent about a 5% increase over those included in the 2020-21 main estimates tabled this winter. As you may recall, the 2020-21 main estimates requested the authority to spend $125 billion in voted budgetary expenditures and $87 billion in voted non-budgetary expenditures.

We also continue to publish information on statutory spending in these estimates. This ensures that all Canadians have the most complete information available on the planned spending of appropriation-dependent organizations.

For information purposes, these supplementary estimates include forecasts of statutory expenditures totalling $81 billion. These statutory expenditures forecasts provide information on emergency spending that was authorized by parts 3 and 8 of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act, which were presented, debated and passed in Parliament in March and April. Parliament is not being asked to vote on them again in supplementary estimates (A).

Mr. Chair, it's important to be clear on the difference between voted and statutory expenditures. I mentioned this a couple of months ago when I was at the committee and walking through how we map out the supply calendar.

Voted expenditures require annual approval from Parliament through an appropriation bill. This means that parliamentarians consider and approve the government's proposed spending plans in the estimates documents before they are authorized in an appropriation bill. Statutory amounts, on the other hand, are presented in the estimates for information, because they've already been approved by Parliament through other legislation.

To support transparency and accountability in government spending, significant additional detail on these supplementary estimates is available online. The government's online information tools reflect the commitment to give Canadians a clear explanation of where public funds are going and how they're being spent. As my colleagues Alison McDermott and Soren Halverson from the Department of Finance can attest, the Minister of Finance is committed to report on a biweekly basis to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on the key actions taken by the government to help Canadians.

Finally, as usual, the government will report on the actual spending through the public accounts after the conclusion of the fiscal year.

Again, I realize members are eager to get to the questions, so I will leave it there. I'm happy to receive them. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

My understanding is that we do not have an opening statement from our representatives from Finance. In that case we'll go directly to questions.

I think we can go with our full six-minute rounds, five-minute rounds and two-and-a-half minute rounds.

We'll start off with Mr. McCauley, for six minutes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you, witnesses.

Mr. Purves, it's good to see you back. I have a quick question. Earlier in committee we heard from PCO that half of their $50-million advertising ask was for future use, without an exact plan, in case something came up from COVID. They said it went through TBS approval. Why did that not go through a vote 5? There's a textbook definition for why it should be under vote 5 for TBS.

[Glenn Purves]

Are you referring to PCO funding—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Yes, I mean the $25 million. They said it passed through TBS approval for advertising spending for which they actually didn't have a plan. It was just held in reserve, basically, in case something came up with COVID. Why would Treasury Board not put that into a vote 5?

[Glenn Purves]

Why would it not put it into a vote 5 or why did it not?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Why did it not?

I'm curious as to how it got past Treasury Board and was not put into a vote 5.

[Glenn Purves]

Certainly vote 5 is being considered for government contingencies, in which departments are not able to actually provide funding and support for certain initiatives. I think for PCO—