Government Operations Committee on March 12th, 2020

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have 10 seconds.

[Bill Matthews]

The answer is that it depends. I think we should probably maybe come back to this because Marc, my colleague, can offer you an explanation of the prioritization process.

Just to further support what the minister said—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I'm going to ask you if you can take a stab at that answer in a written form, through the clerk, to the members. Thank you very much.

Colleagues, I am going to go now to four-minute rounds so that we have an opportunity to get a complete round in that would allow both Madame Vignola and Mr. Green to have two minutes each at the end of your intervention.

We will start with Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'll go back to the DRR. On page 1 of the departmental report near the last paragraph, it says, “enhanced guidelines for its building projects now exceed existing minimum accessibility codes and standards for government and industry.” This is great, but when I look at the actual DRR for it, it says, percentage of buildings “that provide features to support universal accessibility.” There is no target for last year and no actual results for last year.

It's just back to the process of, we're approving money, we're trying to figure out what the results are, but the old plan published by the department is not setting goals.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thanks so much.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

What is the process going to be to improve this? I will just go back to the DRR for your department. In the last year that we had reporting, 53% of goals were met. Therefore, 46.5% of the goals were either not met or the department didn't even bother setting goals. What were you going to do to improve that?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

It is very important to publish clear metrics to measure government performance on procurements. That's a priority for me

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It's part of the Treasury Board framework for results.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I was just going to say that. Some of the metrics that we are commenting on in the DRR are from requests from Treasury Board that we provide metrics on these items. We are taking significant steps in the area, but those metrics have not fully been put in place yet. We are implementing, for example, an electronic procurement strategy that will make it easier and faster for us to be able to collect data on some of the items that we are working on.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

I just want to move on to a couple of other parts of the DRR. On page 15, it says, “Average number of qualified bidders on complex competitive procurement processes.” It has no targets. I'm just trying to figure out how we're citing that as a goal without a target. Then it also sets no past history. Then the average days to award level one and level two complexity are actually getting worse every single year—with no targets.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thanks again—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Again, the department comes before us and every time we ask what the money is for, but the department is not even following the government's own guidelines of setting targets. I'm asking why.

Are we going to see your departmental plans reflecting this past practice of coming and asking for money but not actually setting targets as is required, or have they been changed so that they actually present to MPs, so we know what we're actually voting on, but also to taxpayers so they see what they are getting for their money?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I appreciate the concern. As I continue to work very hard as minister, I am going to be seeking to publish clear metrics to measure government performance. I understand the importance of targets. I understand the importance of KPIs. That is one of the reasons I am very supportive of our e-procurement strategy, because we can start to track suppliers and precise metrics relating to suppliers such as how many indigenous suppliers and how many women suppliers we have.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I just have one last quick question on this supplementary (B).

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You better make it in 10 seconds, Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Reinvestment of revenues for sale of transfer real property....

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I'll want a written answer to that if you can.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Sorry, I'm just waiting for the question.

What was the question on that?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

What is it for?

Maybe you can put it in writing for us.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

We'll put it in writing, and we'll get it to you.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I know you have the Treasury Board's applications and all the backups.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Drouin, you have four minutes, please.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for appearing before this committee. I know it's your first time. I'm sure it won't be the last time. Thank you for bringing the folks we've come to know over the past few years to this committee.

I want to touch on a point that Mr. McCauley brought up in his previous round of questioning. It had to do with the DRR and the lack of greenhouse goals in the DRR. Is it that the department does not have any greenhouse gas reduction goals for their properties, or is it just that it's not included in the DRR?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'm looking at page 36 of the DRR. Our target was 40%, and our actual results were 54.3% on federal infrastructure spending relating to social, economic and environmental policies. I would just like to indicate that there are places in the report, throughout the report, where we are able to provide the targets, and we are exceeding those targets.

[Bill Matthews]

Can I just elaborate on that for one moment, please?

The minister touched on it. The target was actually exceeded. That 40% target the minister referred to for greenhouse gas emissions reduction was by 2030. We've done it 10 years ahead of schedule. That's a great success story for the department. The results are on page 36.

What we're planning next on that front is to continue to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Related to these supplementary estimates, there are two things that I would highlight for you. The money we're requesting was referenced earlier. It's for two projects.

One project concerns the fact that this department is responsible for a lot of heritage buildings. The exteriors of heritage buildings are a unique challenge from an energy efficiency perspective. We're doing some studying on that. It's a study where Treasury Board awarded money to the department through a competitive process. It was an internal competition. We were successful on that one.

There's a second one related to CO2 recapture in server rooms that we're testing out in Quebec. The money in these supplementary estimates is related to a mini-competition Treasury Board Secretariat ran to generate new thinking in this area. Those are the two things targeted here.