Government Operations Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2024

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm going back to Mrs. Kusie for five.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Okay, Minister. As was reported in The Ottawa Citizen yesterday, you have begun a multi-billion-dollar spending review.

Can you please share with the committee the name of the consulting firm that is helping you with this multi-billion-dollar spending review?

[Anita Anand]

I have no knowledge of any third party contractor assisting with this process, but I will turn to the officials, in case they have knowledge on—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

You should have knowledge of everything, first of all. I'll start by saying that.

Mr. Matthews, answer briefly, please.

[Bill Matthews]

From a TBS perspective, we are organizing and running our GS2, greening government strategy, initiative through the expenditure management sector, and there are no contractors or companies hired.

What we cannot say is whether any department specifically hired a consulting resource to help them develop their own proposals. We would not have a line of sight on that.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Again, you are the Treasury Board and overseer of all departments regarding finances, so I would expect there to be knowledge of that.

Minister, if I were to do an OPQ, Order Paper question, would anything come up on a third party relative to this process, outside of what Mr. Matthews said?

[Anita Anand]

Mr. Matthews' comments are ones that I support.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Okay.

If I were to do an ATIP, I wouldn't find any information, currently, on a third party consulting firm.

[Anita Anand]

You're welcome to file any type of request you want, whether it's an OPQ or an ATIP. I'm telling you what I know in honesty.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

I appreciate that.

You are telling me, then, that the Trudeau government is doing all of this on its own right now. It's being completely handled by your Prime Minister and you, the minister for the Treasury Board.

[Anita Anand]

I am telling you that the process we are following is this: I have sent a letter to each minister to provide me with details regarding how they're going to meet the targets related to refocused government spending, including reducing the size of the public service by 5,000 through natural attrition. We are receiving those submissions now. We will review them, and we will table results in the main estimates, if all goes well.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Okay, thank you.

This is from a government that the PBO says is $6.8 billion over the deficit. As far as you know, the Trudeau government, under the Prime Minister's leadership, is managing all of this. God help us all.

[Anita Anand]

That's—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Minister, I will go on to my next subject now, which is something that has been very dear to this committee. It is the arrive scam scandal.

You promised this committee several months ago—possibly a year ago now—that you would recoup the $64 million from the fraudsters and scammers who took money out of the pockets of Canadians. You told this committee and Canadians that you would recoup this money. This, of course, is a scandal under RCMP investigation and the House ordered a review to ensure the return of the money.

My question for you today, on behalf of Canadians, is this: How much of the $64 million dollars have you recovered, Minister?

[Anita Anand]

The RCMP investigation is continuing. I said that, when we receive the report by the RCMP, we will recoup the lost monies of Canadian taxpayers.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Okay. That sounds like zero.

I'm sure you have a process in place that you have started.

What type of confirmations have you received about funds you will recoup, wherein certain vendors have said, “As soon as this process is completed, we will return these funds”? What commitments have you received in terms of funds expected to be returned to you? Give a number, please.

[Anita Anand]

Mr. Chair, as I mentioned, the RCMP investigation is ongoing. We have a commitment to recoup taxpayer dollars at every turn. We accepted the recommendations of the Auditor General relating to those issues, and we will continue to ensure we adhere to the recommendations. That's why I implemented reforms in March 2024 with a revised directive on conflict of interest, increased contract—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry. We're past our time—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Where's the money, Minister?

[Anita Anand]

—information, a horizontal audit—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Please get Canadians the money. Thank you.

[Anita Anand]

As soon as we have a report from the RCMP, we will move on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry. We are past our time, both of you.

We're going to Ms. Atwin.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister and your team of officials, for being with us today.

I'm just going to pick up a bit on what some of my colleagues were asking about with regard to the public service, with a shout-out to the incredible public service workers from New Brunswick.

We have a lot of discussions around whether regional concerns might be taken into consideration. Of course, I'm thinking about Fredericton, as our capital, but I'm also thinking about Caraquet or Charlo.

Do you know if there's any conversation or discussion around considering rural communities and how they might be impacted by cuts in the public service?

[Anita Anand]

Again, each minister is responsible for their own portfolio. Those decisions and considerations would be with the minister itself.

I know that Minister Gudie Hutchings is very committed to ensuring there is regional consideration. I will certainly take this comment back to her.

Thank you.