Evidence of meeting #3 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 loans.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Does that figure also include transfers to Quebec, or only to the rest of Canada?
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
I think those are transfers to families to ensure that they have an Internet connection.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
Mr. Green, this is your final intervention, with two and a half minutes.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Thank you very much.
If I recall, I believe my mother actually worked on the connecting Canadians program for the Department of Industry way back in the nineties, so I'm glad to see that we're still on that.
In your mandate letter, the Prime Minister asked you to help ensure that people of all gender identities, indigenous peoples, racialized people, persons with disabilities and minority groups are reflected in positions of leadership.
In June 2019, this committee published a report entitled “Improving the Federal Public Service Hiring Process”, which noted that the Government of Canada should develop initiatives and programs to attract and hire more women in certain fields, such as STEM; more people with disabilities; more indigenous people; and more members of visible minorities. Morever, they should not just be hired for entry-level positions.
What concrete actions do you plan to take to ensure that the number of women in certain fields, people with disabilities, indigenous people and members of visible minorities increases in the public service, including in leadership positions?
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
I can only comment that this is from the mandate letter for the president, so it's probably more appropriate for the president to respond to this. I think one thing that could be helpful would be for us to take that back and give a written response to you on behalf of the president.
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
In your general assertion, do you tend to agree with the recommendations of the committee?
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
I think inclusivity and employment equity are very important, but I'm an official here to answer questions on supplementary estimates, the estimates process and the funding that is in here. There is a whole host of initiatives and data that exist, including the public sector employment surveys and so forth, that try to improve and build upon these very important and basic tenets that should be included. I do think that perhaps in this instance, given that it is part of the mandate letter and is cited as a mandate letter issue for the president, giving you a fulsome response is something I could do.
Perhaps Baxter can jump in.
Baxter Williams Executive Director, Employment Conditions and Labour Relations, Treasury Board Secretariat
In terms of transparency, the department is beginning to publish disaggregated data by employment equity in its employment equity annual report coming out at the end of this fiscal year. We've also put in place a central repository of active public service pools that is accessible by managers and HR advisers and that can be filtered by group level and EE status. That becomes a tool to enable and better understand this.
Executive Director, Employment Conditions and Labour Relations, Treasury Board Secretariat
Yes.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
I want to thank all of our witnesses—Ms. Santiago, Ms. Cahill, Mr. Purves and Mr. Williams—for being here once again. Your appearances are always pleasurable.
Colleagues, I will suspend now. We have about 15 minutes left in which I'd like to deal with committee business.
We are suspended.
[Proceedings continue in camera]