Government Operations Committee on June 16th, 2020

[Louise Baird, Assistant Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs, Privy Council Office]

I can talk a little bit about the format and how we're doing some of those intergovernmental relations.

We have a team at PCO that does have the responsibility to support the Deputy Prime Minister as well as the Prime Minister in federal-provincial-territorial relations. During the COVID response, we have had almost daily meetings with our counterparts in the provinces and the territories. We've also been supporting the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister at weekly meetings with all of the premiers to ensure that information is shared in a timely way.

Often the provinces and the territories, which have responsibility for health care, deliver some of the programs. We ensure that they have the information available to them on some of the new support programs coming out at the federal level and collaborate on some of the actions so that there is a level of collaboration between the different orders of government.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Great.

You mentioned in your earlier remarks that part of the advertising campaign was geared towards health advice, and other parts of the advertising campaign were geared towards financial measures and working with the Department of Finance. Do you have a measure of how well the campaign has informed Canadians specifically about the federal financial supports that are available?

[Ken MacKillop]

I'm sorry. I don't have the breakdown of that 85% and what was specific to the public health campaign or the Finance campaign, but I can certainly get that to you and give you a little bit of the evaluation of the Finance campaign to date.

We do know that Finance has already committed approximately $7.5 million in advertising for this fiscal and they've already engaged in that. A large percentage of that was in Canadian media. On the evaluation so far, we do see that Canadians are responding well to the CERB, for instance, the Canada emergency response benefit. We'll do some more advertising this week on the emergency wage subsidy as well, to get a little more uptake on the emergency wage subsidy.

I can certainly get you some information on the evaluation of the Finance campaign to date.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you. I'd appreciate that.

I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about the biggest item in the supplementary estimates, which is the $585 million for the construction of the two Protecteur class ships. I know that these are very important, to permit naval vessels to remain at sea for much longer periods of time without having to return to port for fuel and other supplies. I'm particularly interested in this project, because I've had the opportunity to visit the Seaspan facilities in my neighbouring riding, where many of my constituents work.

This is a question more for PSPC. I was hoping you could tell me what the requested $585 million in support would go towards in the construction of these ships and what the total costs of those ships would be.

[Bill Matthews]

While PSPC is not getting any funding in these estimates for our work on the JSS, the joint support ships, obviously we have a role. The latest announcement or contract signing brings the total cost up to $4.1 billion. That's the current contract that's in place. So that's the update there.

If you're asking whether there's any new money in here for PSPC and for our role, no, there's no money in here for PSPC for joint support ship work.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Great. Thank you.

What was the original estimate from the PBO of the cost of the JSS?

[Bill Matthews]

I don't actually have the initial estimate of the PBO in front of me. I can tell you that the most recent update, before this latest one, was $3.4 billion. That has been signalled as being under review for a while. The latest update on cost brings us up to $4.1 billion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Mr. Aboultaif for five minutes, please.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you, Chair, for giving me the time.

I have a question about the Canadian Digital Service, for which there was about $9 million for 2019, about $12 million for 2020-21, and I think maybe a similar amount or bigger for 2021-22. Would you be able to explain to us what the Canadian Digital Service does?

[Bill Matthews]

Mr. Chair, I'm wondering if that question is better suited for your next series of witnesses, because I believe—I'm going from memory here, and my friends from PCO may be able to help—that's more of a Treasury Board Secretariat question.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Okay. Then I'll go back to the PPE, Mr. Matthews, to build on the questions that came from my colleague Mrs. Block.

On the prepaid contracts, of the $500 million, how much have you been invoiced for so far?

[Bill Matthews]

I cannot give you an answer for invoices so far.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Why not?

[Bill Matthews]

I'll have to get back to you. I don't have the information with me, but I can see what we can do. Some of this work has not yet started. Some are recent contracts.

I'll have to get back to you, Mr. Chair.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Would you be able to advise us on the 9.8 million masks that were defective? What happened to these masks?

[Bill Matthews]

On the ones that the member is flagging, Mr. Chair, many of these were given to other departments to be used as surgical masks, because that's a lower grade. They've been put into service—not all of them, but a good majority of them—in other departments where the requirement for KN95 does not exist.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

If these were not suitable for medical use, they were probably suitable for non-medical use. Is that a correct statement?

[Bill Matthews]

I think the highest standard of mask you would see, Mr. Chair, is the KN95. Below that, you would have the surgical mask. A defective—if I could say that—KN95 mask is still a high-grade surgical mask. I'm being very generic in my statement here, but it is suitable for other purposes.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Of the 9.8 million masks, do we know for sure how many were returned to market, how many were distributed to different departments for non-medical use, and how many are still in the warehouses?

[Bill Matthews]

Of the ones that have been received in Canada, the 9.8 million that the member is referencing, about half, give or take, if I recall correctly—I'll confirm—have been in use by other departments. Some are still being held by PHAC. PHAC actually has the inventory itself.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Are we getting a credit for what we paid for these 9.8 million masks?

[Bill Matthews]

In terms of the negotiations with the supplier on the defective masks, I can't comment. Those conversations are ongoing, but we are still in discussions.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

We haven't settled that yet, have we?

[Bill Matthews]

That is still ongoing, Mr. Chair.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

What are your conditions? Usually, rejected products will be credited back to the customer, returned back to the supplier or discarded. If you were to discard them, there's a compensation that has to go back to the customer, or if they're going to be stored in warehouses, that also costs money.

What are your options? What are you putting on the table there to negotiate what's going to happen to these masks?