Government Operations Committee on Nov. 4th, 2020

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

Since when, Minister?

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

As of October 26, I can tell you that all departments and all institutions have at least a partial and, in many cases, a full ability to answer the access to information requests.

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

Okay. We'll hold you to that, Minister.

Here's my next question. Given all the money that's pouring out, which is necessary for this COVID pandemic, and given that there's been a great deal of change in the way that the private sector is working in the lives of everyday Canadians, has your department undertaken any efforts to identify possible savings during this pandemic? If so, can you tell the committee about those?

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

Thank you, Mr. Lloyd. You're exactly correct in suggesting that we should focus our efforts on the pandemic. That's what we are doing.

Of course, we are also trying to be mindful that if we want to exit strongly and united out of this crisis, we also need to be acknowledging the vulnerabilities and inequality that existed before the pandemic with respect, for instance, to indigenous peoples. That requires—

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

Has your department identified any possible savings? I mean, there are so many people working from home. Are there any possible savings that you've been trying to target?

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

We have certainly not been in an austerity mode, because Canadians need the services and the benefits of the federal government more than ever.

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

Of course, Minister, but you can surely agree that it's not austerity to see that there are things that just aren't necessary right now during this pandemic.

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

Well, as I said, we are fully mindful of the emergency, the crisis, and we are focusing very much, as you know, as you have also supported our investments in this particular crisis.

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

Okay, so you're not looking at doing any savings.

My final question is, with all of the money that's being spent to provide civil servants with desks and chairs so they can work from their home offices, does your government anticipate that civil servants will be working permanently from home in the future? If that's the case, would the government ever be looking at divesting any government properties?

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

That's again a very good question, demonstrating significant foresight. That said, it's very difficult now to tell what the lessons will be at the end of this pandemic. As you have noted, technology and distance work are all changing rapidly with the pandemic, and we look forward to working with members of the committee to see how we can best apply those lessons during and after the pandemic.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Lloyd.

We'll now move to Mr. Weiler for five minutes.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for joining our committee today.

I'd like to turn back to the matter at hand today, which is, of course, the supplementary estimates (B).

Minister, this spring we debated and passed in the House several bills that contained vital measures to help Canadians get through the COVID-19 pandemic, and in particular, the estimates and the Public Health Events of National Concern Payments Act provided authority for a variety of COVID-19 spending, such as the CERB and the safe restart agreement, and others.

You mentioned in your opening remarks that these supplementary estimates (B) present information on the $58 billion in statutory expenditures. How much of this statutory funding is related to the COVID-19 response measures, and how are these items presented in these supplementary estimates?

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

Thank you, Mr. Weiler. That's an interesting segue from the earlier question by member of Parliament Lloyd.

Ninety-six per cent of the statutory expenditures in the supplementary estimates (B) are focused on the COVID-19 crisis, expenditures such as the safe restart for children at school, to provide PPE—personal protective equipment—to front-line workers, strong investments in vaccines, in treatments, in testing equipment and resources for provinces and territories. Those are all part of that very significant 96% of the budgetary dollars in the supplementary estimates (B).

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Minister.

Moving on here, according to page 4 of the TBS 2020-21 department plan:

TBS is responsible for developing policy and providing strategic direction for managing people in the public service, including in areas such as diversity and wellness.

On page 22 of this departmental plan, it says that TBS is working to ensure a healthy, safe and inclusive workplace. The main estimates fund among other things the Office of Public Service Accessibility and the Centre for Wellness, Inclusion and Diversity.

I was hoping you could tell us what else TBS is doing to create a healthy workplace and to support the mental health of public servants, particularly right now when we're in an especially challenging time with the pandemic.

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

Thank you again, Patrick.

It's so important that you mentioned mental health. In fact, in my region, in my riding not too long ago, we had an instance, a dramatic instance, of the impact of mental health in our society. It's true that we all—I mean a very collective “we”—are going through very difficult times at this particular period in the pandemic, and that's true for public servants as well, so increasing accessibility to mental health services and benefits has been an objective of the Treasury Board in the last few weeks and months. We have done that very collaboratively with unions as it needs to be done. We also have enhanced our mental health portal to make sure that public servants have somewhere to go if they need help.

If we have time, Sandra, would you like to add a few more things that I may have forgotten?

[Sandra Hassan]

Yes, the Treasury Board has been very focused on the health of its employees. In addition to what the minister indicated, we have, of course, extended some temporary measures to allow an expanded list of mental health service providers and have removed some requirements that used to exist. There is, as indicated previously, a centre of expertise on mental health.

In terms of the general workplace, we have been ensuring that our employees' health has come at the forefront to ensure their health and safety. From the beginning of the pandemic, we created a workplace that ensures that employees can work from home. We have expanded their capacity to log in to our infrastructure so as to be able to work their days in a safe environment when the situation in different regions is such that it's preferable, or recommended by the public health authorities, to be working remotely.

Also, when we were developing plans over the course of this summer for a return to the workplace, we worked hand in hand with the bargaining agents and the occupational health and safety committees to look at the workplaces to ensure that, if and when we would be returning to the office, the employees would be offered a safe environment to work, ensuring social distancing, and with other measures in place, so that when they do return to the workplace, it will be a safe place to work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Ms. Hassan, for your answer and Mr. Weiler for your questions.

We've now come to the end of our first hour. At this stage, Minister, you're welcome to stay if you'd like. I'm sure that members would love to have you here if you want to answer further questions, but I understand if you have to leave. I will throw that out to you. If you'd like to stay, you're welcome to.

If not, then we will suspend briefly while we bring in the witnesses for the next hour.

Minister, do you wish to stay?

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

Let me say something very briefly.

Our task as members has been very difficult for many months. I say bravo to you and encourage you to continue your good work. It isn't easy to get your bearings in the current situation. Take care of yourself, all of you, because that's how we'll emerge from this stronger and more united.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Minister. With that, I you have to leave, so we will suspend briefly while we bring in the other officials. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

We will now resume the meeting.

We're now into the second hour, and we have officials from the Treasury Board Secretariat as well as the Department of Finance. I thank them all for being here today and, hopefully, Ms. McDermott will be able to join us as we go on.

We're going to start the first round with six minutes.

Mr. Paul-Hus, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My first question is for the Treasury Board Secretariat officials.

Earlier I asked the minister whether an official languages impact analysis had been conducted on the WE organization, and he seemed not to know.

Do you have an answer for us? Has that kind of impact study been conducted? If so, do you have the document?

[Sandra Hassan]

I'm not in a position to answer that question because that's not my responsibility.

I'll let my colleagues tell you whether they have that information.

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

All right.

Since no one's answering and time is short, I'll move on to other questions.

You're aware of the access to information requests issue. We talked about it a little earlier. According to the online database, in the first five months of this year, 3,155 requests were processed and posted, compared to 15,000 last year. The minister told us earlier that this had recently started up again. However, I would like to know how many access to information requests have been made since the start of the year.

I don't know specifically to whom that question should go. Perhaps Ms. Hassan could answer.

[Sandra Hassan]

I think my colleague Ms. Cahill could answer it.

[Karen Cahill]

Thank you very much.

Unfortunately, as Ms. Hassan noted in response to the last question, I don't have that information and therefore can't answer. My sector isn't responsible for access to information, particularly since I believe you want an answer for government as a whole.