Government Operations Committee on Dec. 12th, 2024

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you very much.

I've had the pleasure of serving on the indigenous and northern affairs committee as well, where MP Idlout is able to speak in her Inuktitut language, and we've had access to translation services.

Can you speak to any efforts to expand access to indigenous languages at the interpretation level?

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

That's an excellent question, and I'd like to give you a fairly specific answer.

Can you answer, Madam Deputy Minister?

[Arianne Reza]

Certainly.

Absolutely. The money that we're getting, the $9.6 million, is going to help us across the official languages, as well as increase access to indigenous interpreters by working with various first nations and communities to bring people to Ottawa or look at hybrid Parliament in a way that will better increase access.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Excellent. That's great to hear. Thank you so much.

Budget 2024 explained how labour shortages and resource constraints have strained translation services. Can you speak to how the translation bureau is working to resolve those labour shortages in the medium to long term?

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

That's a great question.

We do that in different ways. The most important one is to support those translators who are currently working for the federal government and to ensure their safety and their health in particular. The second piece is to assist other organizations to train new interpreters and translators.

Just a few weeks ago, I was able to announce, in my own city, an important partnership with Université Laval that is going to lead to their creating a new microprogram on interpretation and translation from which up to 10 new students will graduate every year. This is great for my city, obviously, but we're doing similar things in other parts of Canada so that we have a continuing flow of new talent and people into supporting the translation and interpretation services here in the House of Commons and Parliament.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you.

With my remaining time—I have about a minute left—maybe I will return to the indigenous procurement piece, because it has certainly been a hot topic here in the House of Commons. I have listened to a lot of the witness testimony, and it has been about improving access for indigenous businesses.

Can you speak to how PSPC is encouraging the participation of indigenous businesses?

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

This has to be the top priority, because there are about 2,900 indigenous businesses registered in the indigenous business directory, although we know that there are approximately 60,000 indigenous businesses in Canada. There are many indigenous businesses that have yet to be able to support the needs of the federal government and, therefore, support their workers and their communities by participating fully in the procurement system.

We have Procurement Assistance Canada, and we have an equity plan and an engagement strategy, which is—not entirely but somewhat—focused on reaching out to, informing, encouraging and supporting indigenous businesses across Canada, including in your own riding.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks very much, Minister. We will excuse you. Thanks for joining us again. Have a wonderful Christmas.

We're going to suspend for about two minutes to excuse the minister and get the next witnesses set up.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Good afternoon.

We are back in session with our officials now for an hour.

We're going to start with Mrs. Block, please, for six minutes.

Go ahead.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Mr. Benay, I'm going to direct a number of my questions to you.

I was very interested to see a request for additional funds for NextGen in the supplementary estimates, especially since I had put a request into the minister's office for a briefing on NextGen and have yet to hear anything back. That was over a month ago.

As of June 10, 2024, the government had spent just shy of $80 million on this new system. As the person in charge of the development of the NextGen pay system, can you please explain to the committee why you need $102 million over the next few months, when you've spent less than that over the past few years?

[Alex Benay, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

The difference is that we are in a period when we are designing and configuring the new solutions. We're moving beyond analysis to configuring the new solution with Dayforce. It is also money that will be used to continue to develop our AI capability to clean the backlog so that we can transition to a new system.

We are moving into a different phase of the project, where we want to prove feasibility by the end of the fiscal year.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

It's ramping things up, so to speak, from the previous period.

You've held a number of positions, both inside and out of government, over the past few years. Did you ever work for MindForce AI?

[Alex Benay]

If you're referring to MindBridge, yes, I have.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I'm sorry. It's MindBridge AI.

[Alex Benay]

That's correct.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

When did you work for them? What time period did you work with them?

[Alex Benay]

I can get you the exact dates, but it would have been immediately after my departure from government.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

The government was your employer directly prior to your time with MindBridge AI, then.

Is there a cooling-off period when you are moving to the private sector after holding a senior position in government, such as a CIO?

[Alex Benay]

There is. There's a procedure through the Ethics Commissioner, which I followed.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I have a copy of an email that was sent from you to Mr. Minh Doan on August 21, 2019. I believe you were still employed by the government at that time. You were seeking to set up a demo for MindBridge AI, your soon-to-be employer, using your personal email.

Does this contact between you and a senior government official constitute a violation of the required cooling-off period?

[Alex Benay]

I'd have to check the dates and come back to you, to be honest with you. I'm happy to do that.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you very much. We'd appreciate receiving that in writing.

These emails fall within the time frame of emails that Minh Doan deleted. Were you aware of that?

[Alex Benay]

No.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

It seems a little suspicious that all of these emails disappeared.

We would appreciate it if you would get that information to us.