Evidence of meeting #10 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was digital.
A video is available from Parliament.
6:50 p.m.
Bloc
6:50 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
Other funding is the $84 million in supplementary estimates (B) for continual refreshing of old and aging applications and equipment. This funding was started under our government. It's the kind for the maintenance and repair upgrade work that was being neglected over the decades, which has led to some of our challenges.
We have $37.3 million for Shared Services Canada in the modernization initiatives, and migrating workloads out of the old data centres, of which 230, I believe, have already been closed down—so we've closed almost one-third and moved it more modern housing.
There is $31.3 million for Shared Services—
6:50 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
—to secure the connections to the cloud from potential cyber-attacks and make it very secure.
I could go on, but I see that you have another question.
6:50 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you very much, Ms. Murray.
Has the fact that more public servants have been teleworking led to an increase in security breaches?
6:50 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
Security is absolutely a high priority for me as a minister. And when people were segued to working from home, we made sure that they had access to tools like Webex that have security perimeters. So it is the connectivity, the tools—
6:50 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
—the 15,000 new computers that went to public servants, as well as clear standards and protocols for making sure they are handling data security from their home offices.
6:50 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
In view of the increase in the number of people teleworking, have you observed an increase in security breaches or not?
It's not a trick question.
6:50 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
No, of course, very large organizations are always subject to attack. At the same time, we have boosted our focus on that.
I will ask Marc to answer whether there have been breaches. As far as I know, there have not been breaches of our Canadian perimeter, and that is testament to people like Marc who work on that.
Marc, do you have a comment to add?
6:50 p.m.
Marc Brouillard Acting Chief Information Officer of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
Thank you, Minister.
No, there has not been much of an increase in breaches. However, there were more attacks on matters related to COVID-19.
With the Shared Services Canada security perimeter, it's as if employees were working on the network. The network remains protected.
6:55 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Brouillard.
On November 13, 2020, the Parliamentary Budget Officer sent an information request to SSC asking about the dollar amounts spent on cybersecurity, the CERB, the CRA call centres, and on health measures for first nations.
Did you supply this information by November 27 as requested?
If not, when do you expect to do so?
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
This is about openness and transparency, which are very core principles for me and for our department. Yes, our department has been in communication with the Parliamentary Budget Officer. We are working through the answers that the PBO is looking for. I'm happy to have Marc answer in more detail if the member would prefer.
6:55 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you, Ms. Murray. I'd be very grateful.
Mr. Chair, how much speaking time do I have left?
6:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
You have 30 seconds for a question and answer, Mademoiselle.
6:55 p.m.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Right.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer also asked for this information to be submitted weekly.
Does SSC intend to provide this information on a weekly basis?
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
SSC is working with the Parliamentary Budget Officer to satisfy the requests of that department in a way that is cost effective and efficient as possible.
6:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you, Mademoiselle Vignola, and thank you, Minister.
We will now go to Mr. Green, for six minutes.
November 30th, 2020 / 6:55 p.m.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
My good friend, Mr. Lloyd, opened his round of questioning with some really important questions. I'm a former city counsellor, and I know that in instances of what I would call shady dealings around procurement, one of the ways staff would do that is to break up big contracts and have them procured out as smaller contracts.
I noted that the honourable Minister had a bit of a chuckle but didn't quite answer the question. I want to make sure I got a chance to put the question back to her. When she became minister, was she briefed on this practice as a point of procurement, given the size, scale and scope of the IT modernization within her purview.
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
I have not been briefed, nor have I any information that would suggest that that's the practice in the Government of Canada. Procurement is inordinately important, and that's why we're modernizing it to make sure that SMEs and others that are typically disadvantaged with the large projects SSC procures will have access.
I'm happy to turn it over to Paul Glover. He may have more.
6:55 p.m.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
That's fine. That will suffice, because there is a challenge process. It's listed on buyandsell.gc.ca. We have a whole office of a procurement ombudsman that deals with complaints.
Has your department ever been investigated for complaints or any other irregularities as it relates to procurement? I checked on the site, but I couldn't find it in time.
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Joyce Murray Liberal Vancouver Quadra, BC
I just would say, Mr. Green, that with spending the size of SSC's, if we had never been asked that and never been challenged, I would be shocked. I'll put it over to Paul Glover to tell you whether we have or not.
6:55 p.m.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
It could be a brief yes or no, Mr. Glover. Are there any investigations under way to your knowledge?