Government Operations Committee on March 10th, 2021

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Virtue signal—holy Christ.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Chair...?

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Mr. Green, please.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I trust that will not be taken from my time. That was extremely rude of Mr. Green.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

No, it will not be taken from your time.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

[Glenn Purves]

Ms. Harder, typically when departments come in through supplementary estimates, in the case of ACOA or CEDQ, it's for the incremental funding they need up and beyond what they've received. There has been an announcement of $93.1 million over 2021 and to 2023-24, with up to $221 million in partnership with Canadian financial institutions to support this initiative. This includes an ecosystem fund of $53 million and a knowledge hub of $6.5 million. There's surveying, and analysis of surveys, of $2 million—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

What is the additional $395,000 needed for?

[Glenn Purves]

This is to support the ecosystem fund component that these organizations are involved with. Of course, that fund supports Black-led businesses.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

What does that mean? “Ecosystem” is a nice word, but what does that mean? Ultimately, what difference is this making in the lives of Canadians?

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Ms. Harder.

If you could answer that quickly, Mr. Purves, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Glenn Purves]

It's to support Black-led business organizations across Canada by funding their business development services. If you like, we can come back with a more detailed response on that to the committee. I'd be happy to do that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Purves. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Ms. Harder.

We'll now go to Mr. Jowhari for five minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Purves, it's good to have you and your team back. Please extend our regards to the minister. We're looking forward to having him in full health and back at the committee again.

You started talking about horizontal items. I understand that in the supplementary estimates (C) we have about eight horizontal items. I'm interested in about two or three of them. Can you give us an idea of what's included there? Specifically, I'd very much like to get some feedback around the $55 million, I believe, in funding for the integrity of the Canada border and asylum system. That's broken into two pieces.

If you could start by commenting on that one, I'd really appreciate it.

[Glenn Purves]

To give people a sense of what horizontal initiatives are, whenever we table supplementary estimates, if there's funding for an initiative that covers multiple areas and multiple departments, we always list it as a horizontal initiative. We try to flag that as part of our transparency.

In terms of that specific initiative, it's used to provide emergency housing and support services to improve the interoperability of various information technology systems related to asylum systems in order to increase administrative efficiency and the speed of processing claims.

Of that $55.6 million that you're referring to, Mr. Jowhari, $6 million is going to the Canada Border Services Agency, about $22.3 million to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, and about $1.9 million to the Immigration and Refugee Board. Then, of course, under the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and Shared Services Canada, there are additional amounts of about $3 million in particular pertaining to some of these.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Can you comment on the $6 million that's going to the Canada Border Services Agency? What is this for?

[Glenn Purves]

I'm wondering if my colleague Rod Greenough has that open—he might be a little quicker than me—to be able to explain it.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Yes, perhaps it could be quick, because I want to go to the regional air transport initiative of about $44 million. I'm trying to get some feedback around what that money is for. Perhaps you could quickly talk about the $6 million.

[Glenn Purves]

Of that amount, it's effectively part of a broad range of initiatives to increase the capacity and efficiency of the system. Specifically, that amount is going to project definition in the early implementation of the new automated IT security screening system. In terms of milestones, they expect project definition completion by March. Then they're expecting effectively the broader project implementation to be completed in June of 2022.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

We also have another $44 million of funding for regional air transportation initiatives. About $10 million of it is for Atlantic Canada. What specifically are these funds earmarked for?

[Glenn Purves]

This funding is intended to promote reliable and affordable access to critical regional and local airport and air carrier operations and services. Each organization provides grants and contributions to municipalities, provinces and territories, not-for-profit organizations, businesses and indigenous organizations to help maintain essential air transportation services that support local economies.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Are any of these COVID-related or are these just normal initiatives?

[Glenn Purves]

We have them tagged as COVID-related because they came as a reaction to the COVID initiative and the disruptions that have impacted that industry.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

We have about $31 million for violence against indigenous women and girls. The major portion of that is about $29 million. With about 15 seconds left, can you shed some light on that? Thank you.

[Glenn Purves]

These are operating expenditures and contributions intended to support community-led solutions for reducing violence and addressing harms associated with attendance at federal Indian day schools, addressing service gaps and wage disparities in 46 emergency shelters, and supporting off-reserve shelters used by indigenous women and children.