Government Operations Committee on Nov. 4th, 2020

[Glenn Purves]

I think, again, I'm going to have a follow-up conversation with the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

I think you know, Mr. McCauley, that we strive to ensure that we have as much transparent information, both as we report through estimates as well as through our GC InfoBase. It has been shown in the past that the committee itself has come up with suggestions, which we have followed up. I think it's incumbent on us to have that conversation with the PBO as well.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I think I'm out of time.

When are the departmental results reports coming out? Is everything kind of—

[Glenn Purves]

The public accounts have to come out first.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

They are coming out in a couple of weeks, I understand.

[Glenn Purves]

Yes. There's no fixed date now for the departmental results reports, but they are slotted to be coming out after the public accounts.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay, that's wonderful. Thanks very much. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. McCauley.

Thank you, Mr. Purves.

We now have Mr. MacKinnon for five minutes.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's my pleasure to be the last speaker this evening.

I heard my official opposition colleagues insinuate that certain individuals were abusing leave code 699 and were sitting around doing nothing. I, in fact, know that's false.

Ms. Hassan, could you explain to us the circumstances in which leave code 699 may be used? That would reassure the members of the committee. Contrary to what the Conservatives claim, it isn't a code for do-nothing public servants.

[Sandra Hassan]

Thank you for your question.

We've made sure to take care of our employees since the start of the pandemic. Code 699 is an exceptional leave code that we used at the start of the pandemic, when we sent everyone home to comply with public health directives and to ensure the safety of our employees and communities.

In the circumstances, few of us could access our computer systems. That code was then used in situations where the employer didn't permit employees to access systems or the network.

Similarly, at the start of the pandemic, schools, child care centres and babysitting services were all closed, and many of our employees had to try to work with children in the home.

Several months later now, the pandemic is part of our everyday lives. We have adjusted to directives as the situation has developed. Consequently, when the child care centres, schools and babysitting services reopened, we adjusted the directives to ask parents to try to make up missed working hours.

The directives were altered again on October 22. Leave code 699 will continue to apply but in more exceptional instances. For example, it may apply where employees are still unable to enter their workplace, whether regularly or on an exceptional basis. We were given the example of laboratory researchers who must work in rotations: in one in every four weeks, a team may not go to the laboratory because others are there. Consequently—

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Hassan. I am going to interrupt you here or else I'm afraid we'll run out of time.

What I understand from this is that the Government of Canada is skilfully managing this, adjusting to needs and, like any modern or progressive employer, not only managing human resources compassionately but also accounting for it all. Thank you for that.

I have one final question. I believe Mr. Lloyd insinuated that the Government of Canada was selling properties and doing so as a direct result of COVID-19.

I don't know whether my question is for you or your colleagues, but could you tell us whether the government is considering selling Government of Canada properties as a direct result of the COVID-19 crisis?

[Sandra Hassan]

As your question concerns the management of the property portfolio of the Government of Canada, you can put it to our colleagues at Public Services and Procurement Canada when they appear before your committee.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Absolutely.

With that, I thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Mr. Paul-Hus, you have a point of order?

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I simply want to say that I condemn the remarks by the parliamentary secretary, Mr. MacKinnon, regarding what we purportedly said. The beginning of this question was very—

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

That's a point of debate, Mr. Chair.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Your question was very insidious, Mr. MacKinnon. You don't do that when you want to maintain a good working atmosphere.

In my question, I took the trouble to say that, if public servants were at home—

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

Mr. Chair, that's a point of debate.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Excuse me, but I have the floor.

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

In any case, that's not a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Order.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I want to say that we made a point of saying that people were at home and involuntarily so. However, it's our duty to ask questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

We have come to the end of the meeting, and I appreciate everyone's comments and questions.

It's 9:16 and we called the meeting to order at 7:09, so for us to have completed this with just seven extra minutes with all the questions, I appreciate that.

We will be sending a letter to the minister to ask him back to discuss the supplementary estimates further, and hopefully we will see back here again many of the officials we saw here today.

Mr. Purves, Ms. Paulin, Ms. Cahill, Ms. Hassan, Ms. McDermott and Mr. Halverson, thank you all for staying the extra time. This day went a little longer than we expected.

I would also like to thank all of the other officials here in the room, as well as the interpreters and clerks and staff who are here, for staying the extra time.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.