Evidence of meeting #142 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was programs.
A video is available from Parliament.
October 1st, 2024 / 12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Yes, it is.
I appreciate the clarification, but I was going to push back on that. Thank you for the clarification, Chair.
Yes, it is coming from your department—$18 million from your department, in fact. Do you think that Dominic Barton's close relationship with the Prime Minister and the finance minister had anything to do with receiving the $18 million?
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Okay.
My last question, then, would be this: Did any of this other funding, of the billions of dollars—again, we have the amount for the 2022-23 fiscal year, but we're awaiting the total amount since 2015—go to any kind of government consultant?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
On the Gs and Cs side, it's unlikely, because the consultant would get contracts, so it would be procurement.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Okay.
That concludes my questions, Mr. Chair.
I will now give the floor to my colleague Mr. Godin.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you.
Mr. Godin, welcome back. The floor is yours for two and a half minutes, sir.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is important that I be here today as the Conservative Party's official languages critic and vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
I'd like to move the following motion:
Given that, The Prime Minister has shown a lack of respect for French by appointing a Governor General despite her inability to speak French; That the media reported on September 25, 2024, that the Governor General was still unable to hold a conversation in French during a visit to a community centre in Lévis, Quebec, and had to cancel planned activities during her trip to Quebec for this reason; The Committee report to the House its deep disappointment in the Prime Minister for failing to appoint a bilingual Governor General and the Governor General’s lack of progress in learning French, despite the tens of thousands of dollars in public funds spent on her lessons; The Committee write a letter to the Official Languages Committee recommending that it undertake, as soon as possible, an in‑depth study of the process led by the Prime Minister which resulted in the appointment of the Governor General, in defiance of normal official language requirements and in contempt of French‑speakers in Quebec and across Canada.
This motion is most relevant, given the inaction of the past nine years of this government and the Prime Minister, who is responsible. It has neither the will nor the intention to defend the francophonie across Canada, and that has resulted in the appointment of a Governor General who does not speak French. I say that with all due respect to Ms. Simon. She is not the problem; it is our Prime Minister. We have to make sure that the people concerned come and testify before the Standing Committee on Official Languages in order to produce a report on the issue.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you very much.
We'll finish with Mr. Sousa.
You have five minutes, sir.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In reviewing some of the discussions around grants to educational and research institutions around the world that were being referenced, in this case the United States, and in investigating Western University, McGill University, Queens University and U of T, they all referenced getting substantive U.S. grants. These grants were in science research, health research and a number of other areas.
Can you comment on that, please?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
Yes, they do. We also contribute to those universities. If you go into our labs, you will see Ph.D. students and post-doc students coming from Queens, from Carleton University and from the University of Alberta. We have very close partnerships with researchers. Our labs sometimes are very close to the universities because we share common ground.
I visited some of my scientists in the west, and it's not only a mix of my scientists, the ones working within the department, but also international scientists who are there. The group I met was a mix of Canadian, European and Asian students all working on the same issues and all integrated closely with a university like the University of Victoria.
It is important for us and for the kind of research we're doing to work with the ones who know, the ones who are the closest ones to know and the ones who partner with us to make sure that we know what they're doing in order to improve our knowledge. It's key to the kind of approach and the kind of challenge we're facing.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
To wrap this up, because I think we're on the last question, the overall audit objective was to assess the operational effectiveness of governance, risk management and internal controls in place to administer departmental programs and to assess progress made in implementing the recommendations.
To summarize, can you talk about that progress? How are we doing now, given what you've identified in the audit?
I will open it up to all three of you. I know the deputy is in charge, but maybe throughout the chain you can best explain how it's affecting each of you.
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
The fact that we're here and you're making it an important case is important for us. It signals to our employees that it is important. Just doing that makes it better for us.
The fact that we have a good centre of excellence places us in a very good position. The fact that we now have a team for the transformation is a great position to be in. We made the decision that the management table at the ADM level includes me, so there's no ADM committee of ops. There's actually my management committee that talks about operations.
We are making sure that everybody who should be at the table is at the table for the discussion and the approach. The work we're doing with other departments to flag and identify the issues reassures me in terms of how we will improve the situation of the department and make it very good at making sure all the checks and balances are there for Gs and Cs management.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Does anybody want to add anything more before we wrap up?
Are we good?
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Department of the Environment
That was very well said.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Witnesses, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time.
The meeting is adjourned.