Government Operations Committee on Nov. 4th, 2020

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Ms. Vignola, you have one minute.

[Sandra Hassan]

The Treasury Board Secretariat has established a centre of expertise on mental health. In response to the number of real and potential mental health problems stemming from COVID-19, a specialized subgroup was put in place to examine those issues. We have also designed tools to assist employees in distress and those who find their psychological environment uncomfortable as a result of all these new problems.

We therefore have tools to help people manage all that remotely and to deal with isolation. Actually, among the proposed protective measures, we've asked people to work at home, and many of them feel isolated.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Indeed.

What about the costs of all that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Ms. Hassan. I appreciate that. Unfortunately, two and a half minutes goes by very quickly.

Mr. Green, you have two and a half minutes.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Duclos might perhaps recall that the first the question I asked as a parliamentarian in this committee was about settled but uncompensated land claims.

I now see that grants to first nations to settle specific claims and special claims negotiated by Canada by the Special Claims Tribunal had close to $2 billion, with about $1.5 billion used up last year. There is a variance of about half a billion dollars, $416 million.

How can he account for that? Is that money that has been allocated and just not paid, and if so, what is the holdup?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

Thank you.

You are indeed right in saying that you have had an interest in that for a long time, and a keen and detailed interest.

I'll turn immediately to Glenn, who will give you an appropriate answer.

[Glenn Purves, Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat]

Thank you, Mr. Green. It's a great question.

You're correct. Every year there is a certain amount that's been identified in terms of receiving payment authority from Parliament to settle specific claims of multiple types.

In this supplementary estimates (B), for example, we have funding for specific claim settlements of about $760 million. In order to settle a litigation settlement there is about $89 million. There are different classes of these litigation claims that come forward in any given fiscal year.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I have only about a minute left.

What is the total outstanding claim amount of all land claims that are currently under tribunal?

[Glenn Purves]

I have a line of sight of when they actually need the funding to be able to make payments. In terms of what the contingent liability is and so forth, I don't have that line of sight. We can—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Is that something you can get back to us with?

[Glenn Purves]

We can check with those responsible and get back to the committee, for sure.

Just to answer your question, sometimes we have to move money between fiscal years because the payment can't be made in that fiscal year. Sometimes what we do is to call it a “reprofile” and we move the funding from one year to the next.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Is it the variance in the reprofile of—

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

You have 30 seconds.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

—the 2020-21 main estimates that accounts for almost $1.4 billion?

[Glenn Purves]

That is a combination of new funding and reprofiled funding in that amount.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you very much, Mr. Green.

Mr. Lloyd, you have five minutes.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for coming.

I want to follow up on the question from my colleague, Mr. McCauley, and ask the minister if he can commit to us today to provide the language impact analysis for the WE Charity contribution decision to our committee.

Can you commit to that?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

Again, I would first like to thank you and commend you for your interest in official languages and the ability of French-speaking Canadians to receive the services they need, like anyone else.

I have said two things to Mr. McCauley, which I will repeat briefly: (a)—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Minister, I just want an answer. Will you provide that analysis?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

I said that (a) the guidelines the Treasury Board provides and (b) the responsibility that individuals [Technical difficulty—Editor].

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

You're not committing to provide that, so I'll move to my next question, Minister.

I did appreciate that the Canadian Press reported last May that you sent a letter to your cabinet colleagues asking them during this time of pandemic to put a high level of importance on access to information, accountability and transparency.

I was so shocked just this last October to see your colleague, the Minister of Health, say a few weeks ago that it wasn't really that important to her and that she didn't consider it a priority. Were you offended that the health minister basically ignored your letter from last May?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

Thank you for raising that point.

I think everyone, including all of my colleagues, understands the right that we all have to access information even though we are in a pandemic. At the same time, we all understand that the COVID-19 pandemic is creating enormous pressure on the public service. The public service is stretched and overstretched. Because of that, we also need to be understanding of the challenges they face in trying to meet their responsibility of providing—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

I understand that, Minister, but your colleague, the health minister, said it wasn't a priority at all. It's not a matter of allocating resources. She said it wasn't a priority. Were you offended that she just disregarded your request that they put resources into transparency?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

What I can tell you is that all departments and all institutions—a total of 131—now have at least partial and, in many cases, full abilities to provide access to information. All departments and all institutions at the federal level, including PHAC and Health Canada, do have the ability now to provide information.