Government Operations Committee on Dec. 12th, 2024

[Mark Quinlan]

I don't have a lot of information to add, other than the government's goals for greening its real estate portfolio. It's about spending on the energy system in the National Capital Region. The purchase of these certificates also allows us to contribute to certain jurisdictions whose energies are less renewable.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's my time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, I appreciate today. I have some things for the officials, and I'll get to you, Mr. Genuis.

For the officials, I have a couple of quick questions, if you're able to provide responses back in writing.

Mr. Page, can you write to the committee and update us on the CC-295, the Kingfisher, which is one of my favourite topics? How many have been delivered, and how many have been certified? Please provide cost overruns, any holdbacks and any progress payments made regarding the Kingfisher. I appreciate it.

It's a similar issue on the AOPS. I understand that the last one is getting ready for delivery. Could you provide to the committee how much we are over budget on them and how much we've had to spend to address some of the issues, like the generator, water filtration, flooding and anchor?

For Ms. Poulin, regarding the integrity regime, we saw with the CEBA issue that Accenture got remarkable access to government resources, taxpayers' resources, without any oversight. Accenture has been repeatedly charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in the States for false claims against the U.S. government. Please provide in writing how that affects the integrity regime here, because Accenture, unlike perhaps Deloitte, doesn't have a separate Canadian division. It is Accenture, period. If you could get back to the committee with that, I would appreciate it.

Mr. Genuis, go ahead, sir, on your point of order.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

On November 19, when Minister Hajdu was here, I asked her about whether there were any Liberal-appointed senators or Liberal MPs who had businesses on the indigenous business directory. She didn't have an answer ready at the time, but she committed to providing that information back to us within the usual time frame. She may have hoped that I would forget about it, but I have not forgotten. The time frame promised has elapsed, and we have not received that information, as far as I know.

I wonder if we could receive an update from you or the clerk on what steps are being taken here to ensure that the committee's right to request this information and the minister's undertaking that it would be provided are being respected.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

That is a very valid point.

I assume that it has not been provided yet.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Okay.

I'll ask our clerk to follow up with Minister Hajdu's office for that very important information.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

It's probably too late in the term to take too aggressive remedial actions collectively, but I hope, Chair, that with the clerk you can really underline that we will expect this information about businesses owned by Liberal MPs and Liberal-appointed senators that are on the indigenous business directory.

Obviously, if we have to wait another six weeks and we still don't have them by the time we come back in the new year, then a very aggressive response to the failure to hand over the information will be justified.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

The motion passed by the committee does allow an opportunity for the committee to haul people back to committee to answer for not obeying the committee motion, which says 21 days. I'm assuming that it will not be necessary, but we'll ask our clerk to follow up and we'll have a response on Tuesday.

On Tuesday—thank you for the lead-in—we are meeting for an hour and 20 minutes with the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner. The witnesses we had hoped could be here in person for the indigenous study are not able to commit to being here in person, so we will see them in February. We'll have one last round with them to finish up that part of the study.

With that, thank you, everyone.

We are adjourned.