Government Operations Committee on March 12th, 2020

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Okay.

Before an application or program is rolled out, what does the consultation process look like to bring insight and input from Canadians with disabilities into that program?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Respond with a very brief answer, if possible.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

This would be in the ministry. The different departments have the ownership and leadership over the applications they use to deliver their services. As you are probably aware, we have a very robust consultation program and first accessibility legislation that we will be accessible by default as the Government of Canada. There has been major consultation with people with disabilities. I'm very proud of that part of our government's record.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Green, you can bring us home. You have one minute, please.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

In your opening statement, you referenced the challenges of our constituency staff in connecting Canadians to the critical services of government, and we see here reference in a fall 2017 report of the Auditor General on the CRA's call centres, finding that the call centre agents answered only one-third of the calls to the call centre, largely due to call volume. In my riding of Hamilton Centre, we will serve hundreds of people a week on filing very simple tax forms to be able to get them back their returns, yet with this COVID-19 epidemic, our very real concern is that, as we get into social distancing, we won't be able to maybe provide the same quality of face-to-face service that we have in the past.

What efforts are you taking to ensure Canadians can access CRA services through call centres and online?

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

The CRA—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Minister, I'm very sorry, but I'm going to have to say this. In the essence of time, that it's a great question, but if you can provide the answer to this committee through the clerk in written form, we'll make sure we distribute that and share that with the rest of the committee.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I'm very happy to do that, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I appreciate that very much.

Minister, to you and your officials, thank you for being here.

Colleagues, can I have your attention for just a minute? We'll be suspending for just a few moments while we wait for our next group of witnesses to appear. I need about five minutes at the end of the second hour just for some very quick committee business.

Minister, once again, thank you very much. We hope to see you again.

We are suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Colleagues, I'll call this meeting to order.

The normal procedure is that we have opening statements from the ministers appearing before this committee that are normally 10 minutes in length. I have spoken with Minister Anand, and she has agreed to make a somewhat truncated opening statement so that we can get into questions as quickly as possible. I think that's highly appropriate since this is the first time that Minister Anand has appeared before this committee.

Minister, if you care to give your brief opening statement, we'll go into questions immediately upon its completion. The floor is yours.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Thank you very much.

Good morning.

Mr. Chair, I would like to congratulate you, along with the vice-chairs and all my colleagues, for your appointment to this important committee.

I feel very honoured to have been invited by the Prime Minister to join his cabinet and serve as Minister of Public Services and Procurement.

With me today are Bill Matthews, deputy minister; Marty Muldoon, chief financial officer; Michael Vandergrift, associate deputy minister; André Fillion, assistant deputy minister; and Marc Lemieux, assistant deputy minister.

As you know, PSPC is the government's central purchasing agent, linguistic authority and real property manager. It is also the treasurer, accountant, integrity adviser, and pay and pension administrator.

PSPC acts as the engine that runs government. We often play an unseen but central role in enabling the work that our government does here at home and around the world. For example—and especially important in today's world—we are supporting the government in its response to the coronavirus outbreak. Among other things, we handled the chartering of three planes, which brought Canadians home, as well as contracts for nursing services, materials and support for returning Canadians.

I am looking forward to speaking with you today, and I'm looking forward to your questions.

These are just some of the activities currently under way to support the government and deliver results for Canadians.

Honourable colleagues, I thank you for your attention.

I would be pleased to take your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you for your economy of words. I do appreciate it. You're going to get more questions from our colleagues as a result of your short statement.

Colleagues, because it has been a truncated statement and you do have copies of her official 10-minute opening statement, I would ask for a quick consensus that the speaking notes of the minister be deemed read and be appended to the evidence of today's meeting. Do I have your agreement on that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

[See appendix—Remarks by Hon. Anita Anand]

Thank you very much. That way it will be part of the official record.

We'll now go directly into questions.

Mr. McCauley, you have six minutes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Welcome, Minister.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Gentlemen, welcome back.

I see that you've brought a near army with you. I congratulate you.

When former minister Scott Brison was here, he brought 40 staffers along once. You're in second place.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

It's a smaller army, small but mighty.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

On page 14 of the DRR, there's a comment. I'll read it.

...a contract was awarded for a three-year lease of two emergency offshore towing vessels and both vessels entered into service.

This is part of a CITT dispute, so to speak. Can you comment on why we chose these two tugboats—this is for B.C., for the offshore protection plan—that were non-compliant with the original bid?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much for the question because it gives me an opportunity to stress that our national shipbuilding strategy has contributed $1.2 billion to our economy.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Minister, this is not part of the national shipbuilding strategy. This is the OPP, where PSPC ignored its own RFP and granted or awarded a non-compliant bid to Irving over indigenous-led companies or other companies.

I'm wondering why.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you for the clarification.

The decisions that were taken regarding those vessels, those ships, were as a result of a memo to cabinet. For further elaboration, I will ask my deputy minister to step in.

[Bill Matthews, Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'll be very brief on this one.

This is a procurement process competitively awarded. The department actually feels that it was a fair evaluation. It's gone to CITT—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

How much, actually, is the bollard pull? Do you believe that the two tugs have qualified under the bollard pull for international standards of measuring a bollard pull?

Please put it on record. Is it yes or no?