Government Operations Committee on Nov. 16th, 2020

[Bill Matthews]

When we are doing procurements in specific areas, we certainly do community benefits plans, indigenous being the most obvious one. It would be hard for me to say that we follow it across the board. It depends on the nature of the procurement and whether there's an under-represented group that's actually impacted there.

What I would say right now is a partial “yes”.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Given the commitment to housing, for instance, you know that in controlling the National Capital Commission you have LeBreton Flats as a development. I wonder whether you will or whether there have been conversations with the National Capital Commission to require community benefits agreements on the land parcels you are intending to sell.

[Bill Matthews]

I will pass that question over to James, and if he does not have the answer, we will get back to you with that one in writing.

James.

[James Stott]

Thank you.

That is certainly factored into discussions. There is an advisory group that has been pulled together, and that is one of the themes that has come up.

As well, we have other organizations in our portfolio, Canada Lands being one of them.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Yes.

[James Stott]

They set targets for things such as low-income housing in their development plans.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

What is the success rate there? Given the government's bold commitment to housing, how much in federal set-asides are you using through the Canada Lands Company to ensure that deep affordability in social housing is actually rolled out in these plans?

[James Stott]

If I'm not mistaken, generally they have a target of 10%—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Are they achieving that?

[James Stott]

Their track record is quite good, but I'd have to get you a definitive answer on that.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Could you report back to this committee? Can you send us an email or some type of update on that?

[James Stott]

I'd be happy to.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Stott.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Green.

We will now go to Mr. Lloyd for four minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In my previous question to the Treasury Board minister, I asked him whether his department had attempted to identify any cost savings, especially during the pandemic. I've heard a lot of discussion about moving away from single-use plastics and procurement. I wonder whether anyone can answer: Has there been any direction from the government to try to identify any cost savings in procurement, whether it's through government buildings, contracts with building maintenance or anything of that matter?

[Bill Matthews]

Mr. Chair, the easy answer to that one is that, as we think about the future of our office space and how we might work, given that large parts of this department and other departments are working quite effectively with telework, there's an open question about how we reorganize ourselves in terms of the future of the workspace. That's not from a savings perspective, but we're actually finding that people are, in many cases, quite happy to telework at least significant parts of the time.

“Do you need a dedicated office?” is a question that we are asking ourselves as we work on our future real property portfolio for the government. That would be the obvious place where one might find some cost savings, depending on how that rolls out.

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

Thank you. I appreciate that this is a good answer, but I would ask whether there is any foreplanning by anyone in the government, trying to identify ways such as that or any other ways that we can build a future civil service or our future government operations that will be leaner and just as effective.

[Bill Matthews]

The real property portfolio, or the planning for it, is under way now. Obviously, our COVID experience requires an update to that, because people are certainly thinking differently. The other part of the question is around technology and how effectively we are able to equip our workforce with the IT-type tools they need to work from, effectively, anywhere.

I'm sure you'll appreciate that the real property vision plan is not a short-term game. That's a long-term business. However, we're certainly thinking along those lines.

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

Thank you. That's a great segue to my next question.

A recent open letter from the Canadian council of innovators to the Prime Minister outlined that Canada is falling back disturbingly on the Bloomberg innovation index. We're now in 22nd place, behind Slovenia. I think most Canadians would be shocked to see that their country is not being innovative technologically.

Part of the reason CCI is pointing this out is that our government doesn't seem interested in partnering with homegrown information technology companies to develop those local Canadian innovators. Can you answer why our government doesn't seem to be partnering and trying to promote Canadian innovation?

[Bill Matthews]

I can give a couple of reactions to that from a procurement perspective. There are existing tools out there that actually allow for Canadian innovation to be factored into procurement. You often hear from start-ups that—

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

What about sole-source contracts?

[Bill Matthews]

I am not sure I understand that part of the question.

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

Well, in my experience, it seems like we've been seeing a lot of sole-source contracts to large American conglomerates. If there is no opportunity for Canadian companies to even bid or even present their services, how are any tools going to be useful for getting those companies business?

[Bill Matthews]

I think we have a good range of contracts out there, Canadian and elsewhere, but we do have a sector dedicated to especially small and medium-sized enterprises who are looking to break in. That's what the OSME group does inside PSPC. There are other programs out there as well. There are existing programs that one can use and take advantage of and that try to assist Canadian industry where appropriate.

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

How is this government looking on building the digital infrastructure? With COVID we know that it's even more necessary, now more than ever, with our EI systems being decades old. What sort of investments is the government looking at making to actually make sure we can operate as a technologically modern country?