Government Operations Committee on Nov. 4th, 2020

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

Thank you, Ms. Cahill.

Ms. Hassan, I'm going to ask you a question that you may be in a better position to answer.

In an answer given earlier, we were told that 200,000 of the 257,000 public service employees go onto the House or public service network every day.

Are those 200,000 public servants who go onto the network working at home? I imagine if they're on the network, they're doing so in order to work, aren't they?

[Sandra Hassan]

You're right in saying that statistic was provided to you in the context of remote work.

Today we're in the midst of the second wave. Employees who are working from home have been going onto the network since the start of the pandemic, since March, April and May. However, some employees can't do that, for obvious reasons.

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

That's precisely the point of my next question.

As we all know, the Treasury Board Secretariat manages the public service. So we'd like to get a clear picture of what's going on in the public service as a whole during the pandemic.

There are 200,000 public servants across the country who can go onto the network, and that's a good thing. However, what about the other 57,000? Are they on code 699 leave and waiting?

We'd like to get a report stating how many public servants in each department are at home and unfortunately unable to do anything. We're not at all saying it's their fault. We know it's because their work requires them to be at a certain place but that's currently impossible.

How many public servants from each department are at home on code 699 leave? I'd especially like to know how many there are from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

[Sandra Hassan]

I don't have exact figures for every department, but I can give you the most up-to-date numbers I have.

Earlier you said that 200,000 public servants were able to work at home or remotely. As of September 6, 8,483 employees had used leave 699 code. Many other employees, such as correctional officers, food inspectors, certain nurses who work in the north and police officers, have to work on site. A lot of people aren't on the remote network because they absolutely have to do their work on site.

So approximately 200,000 employees are able to work at home. As I told you, as of September 6, nearly 8,400 employees had taken code 699 leave.

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

I see. Have they—

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Ms. Hassan. I appreciate that.

You indicated that you may not have one or two of the answers at this point, but if you are able to get them and submit them to the committee in writing, it would be appreciated.

We now go to Mr. MacKinnon, for six minutes.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Chair, I believe it is Mr. Kusmierczyk next, but I'm happy to pursue questions.

Is Mr. Kusmierczyk...?

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Yes, I believe—

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

I'm sorry. I apologize; it is Mr. Kusmierczyk.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair; I appreciate this.

To all the officials who are here this evening, thank you very much. On behalf of the nine million Canadians who received the CERB and the countless others who benefited from the speed of the rollout of programs over the last number of months, I want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all of the public sector employees—all the government employees who worked overtime, worked weekends and worked diligently to bring these programs forward in a timely fashion to help Canadians out in their moment of need. I want to say thank you on behalf of all those Canadians whom the public sector and public service served so well during these unprecedented times.

Thank you too for being here on a Wednesday evening at 8:30 at night to answer these questions.

I want to turn to TBS to talk about the supplementary estimates, which indicate that TBS is transferring $1.8 billion to various departments for innovative approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in government operations. I want to get a sense of what specifically this funding is being used for.

[Karen Cahill]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. It's an excellent question.

We have a number of initiatives, and we transferred that money to a number of departments.

By the way, this information is also available on the “greening government” website. I can certainly provide the URL for that website to the clerk of the committee.

For example, under Public Services and Procurement Canada, there is a project to drive PSPC's procurement towards a low-carbon economy. This project will allow them to develop a science-based tool that will quantify the number of GHG emissions associated with procurement.

That's one example, but there are many others. Under the Department of National Defence, for example, money is being transferred for CFB Kingston to reduce GHGs. This project will design and install a net-zero heating source system in seven buildings on the base that currently rely on a steam heat source for a gas-fired central heating plant.

There are, then, a number of projects. In some cases, the projects are not only for one single year, but will last over a number of years. You may see these projects in front of you on many occasions. These are only two examples, but there are many examples on our website.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

That's great. I really appreciate this. I know that about 89% of the emissions we generate federally is generated by facilities and that about 11% is generated by fleet. I know that it differs ministry by ministry.

I want to ask you whether ministries set their own goals. Do they ever go beyond the goals set by the federal sustainable development strategy? Are there some ministries that go above and beyond the reduction targets?

[Karen Cahill]

This is an excellent question. I cannot respond in detail, but I will definitely aim to find you the answer and respond to the committee.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I have just one last question. When a ministry puts forward a project like the one at CFB Kingston for the net-zero heating sources, or PSPC comes up with this low-carbon-economy tool to measure GHG emissions, is that information and those best practices readily shared across ministries? Is there a way that happens?

[Karen Cahill]

I would suspect that through the Centre for Greening Government there is sharing of information on best practices. One of the objectives of the Centre for Greening Government is to ensure that a department can benefit from its own best practices and share this information within the department.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

That's terrific. That's good to know.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Kusmierczyk. You actually have 20 seconds for a quick question and answer.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I'll use that time to say what a tremendous job you're doing chairing this meeting this evening, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

Ms. Vignola, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you very much.

According to page 3 of the 2020-21departmental plan,

in 2020–21, TBS will support the Department of Finance Canada, as appropriate, to meet the government’s commitment to undertake a comprehensive review of government spending to ensure that resources are efficiently allocated to continue to invest in people and keep the economy strong and growing.

I imagine that plan was written before the pandemic.

However, has that spending review been conducted? If so, can you tell us the status of the review? Has TBS been involved and, if so, to what extent? If the review is complete, when can we expect the results to be made available?

[Glenn Purves]

I think—

Is there an issue with my microphone?

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

The loud-speaker volume is so high I can't hear the interpreter, even though the volume is at maximum. Can we lower the sound in here, please?

I apologize for interrupting you, Mr. Purves.

[Glenn Purves]

Ms. Vignola, thank you. I will take this question. You're absolutely correct. My short answer is that the events of the pandemic did effectively supersede that work and so there's no report forthcoming on that front. The pandemic has effectively been the focus of the government, including our colleagues at Finance and us at Treasury Board, as we work through the issues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Ms. Vignola, before you start, give us a second while we correct the sound. I've stopped your time.

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

That's good, thank you.