Government Operations Committee on June 7th, 2022

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

As you probably know, in my mandate letter, I am working—our government is committed to this—to support a more inclusive workplace for Black public servants. As you probably also know, in budget 2022, over $3.7 million is dedicated to Black-led engagement, design and establishment of a mental health fund for Black federal public servants. That will be a game-changer for our public service.

We are having consultations with Black employees, experts and mental health service providers that will inform the design of this new fund. The engagement process is expected to be completed this fall or winter, hopefully, and will inform options for implementation. It will also complement other measures we've taken, like legislation, support and development programs, outreach and, as I said earlier, disaggregated data.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Minister.

We've now finished our second round. The minister has been with us a little over an hour. I appreciate her being here, as we always do. I've learned that, over the last 24 hours, we've had weather issues, mechanical issues, equipment problems and personnel issues that sometimes change time frames, timelines and so on.

If the minister wishes to stay with us for a bit longer, we're more than happy to have her. We will only be going one more round, which will be roughly 25 minutes. Recognizing the minister's time, if she wishes to stay, I would appreciate it.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'm sure I'll come and see you again very soon for supplementary estimates (B).

Thank you very much for having me again today, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Minister.

Now, we'll just go into our third and final round with Mr. McCauley, for five minutes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks, everyone, for sticking around.

Would you be able to provide us a breakdown—I've asked previously about this—for the money in Bill C-8, Bill C-10 and the supplementary estimates (C)s for the duplicated funding request for the rapid tests? Just provide it for the committee. I don't need it right now.

In the supplementaries, there's $823 million for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. In the supplementary (A)s it mentions it's for disasters, etc., over the last 10 years. I'm curious why it's in the supplementary (A)s now for items going back 10 years? What would it be addressing?

[Annie Boudreau]

This is based on the requests that we've received from provinces and territories. We need to get the supporting documents in order for us to do our due diligence, and we—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

You haven't gotten the supporting documents. You're asking Parliament to approve almost a billion dollars, but the department itself doesn't have the supporting documents. Are you not putting the cart before the horse, asking for the money when you don't have the supporting documents for the ask?

[Annie Boudreau]

I'm explaining to you why it's 10 years. Once we have all of the information, the department goes to Treasury Board with the submission and we are able to do—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

You do have it all, okay.

[Annie Boudreau]

Yes, exactly. Thank you.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

There's $26 million that's included, I think it's on page 8, for operation of the Prime Minister's residence. I think it's on page 8 of the legislation. Can you break down what that $26 million is for? How much is for day-to-day operations and how much is for any upgrades?

[Annie Boudreau]

Are you talking about supplementary estimates (A)?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Yes, it's the supplementary (A)s. It's in the legislation that came out to us, for the spending authorities that came out today.

[Annie Boudreau]

I will need to check and come back to you on this one.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

There's money in the budget for the whistle-blower initiative, but it's not made it into the supplementary (A)s. Do you know how far along Treasury Board is in developing that program?

On a second question, a similar issue is that there's been a long-standing issue with the access to information problem that we have, ongoing. I notice oddly that we've doubled the work of the Information Commissioner and the government has dumped an acting Privacy Commissioner on her as well. I'm wondering where that idea came from. We're drowning with ATIPs right now and we throw her an anchor by adding more work for her. When will the results of the review be made public?

[Marie-Chantal Girard]

I'll turn to my colleague, Paul Wagner, for that second part.

On the whistle-blower act, yes, we are working on the reform. What we're developing is a review. We're doing the research and preparing for the consultations. If they're not in the supplementary estimates (A), it's because they haven't actioned the funding. When they start they will action—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

When will we see it?

[Marie-Chantal Girard]

In (B) or (C), but it's happening in the coming months.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

[Marie-Chantal Girard]

Paul, maybe you want to take part too?

[Paul Wagner, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Transformation, Treasury Board Secretariat]

Yes, absolutely.

The Information Commissioner taking over while the process is completed to appoint a new Privacy Commissioner is seen as an interim measure through to October of this year. As for your second question regarding the report on the access to information, that will be tabled before the end of this calendar year.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Calendar year, but not Parliament.... Do you know when that would be? Again, we're in a crisis right now with access to information, and the public's access and Parliament's access to documents. It seems like there's a real lack of urgency around that.

[Paul Wagner]

I don't have a specific date on the publication. What I can say is that there's work under way while that report is being finalized. There's work to support departments. We've just completed a request for proposals and we have contracts in place now so departments can actually avail themselves of a common ATIP solution, which will allow obviously departments to have common processes to speed up the work on that. We actually have an online request system that's going to go live in the coming weeks. We're not simply waiting for the report before we act. We're acting on things that we know are the most critical while the report is being drafted.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks.