Government Operations Committee on Nov. 24th, 2022

[Paul Thompson]

I would be happy to.

There were eight that were not competitive. There were two categories. Some had the national security exception applied to them, and some had other sole-source justifications—for example, the ability to provide intellectual property that was unique to one supplier. Those are a couple of examples of the rationale for the sole-source contracts.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Okay.

Minister, if I understand correctly, the portfolio was not yours at the time that ArriveCAN was awarded. Is that correct?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

I was made Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada on August 31, 2022.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Okay.

Are you or your officials able to tell us which ministerial staff were involved in that decision-making process?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

The decision-making process related to what? I mean, ArriveCAN was a very lengthy process.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

The awarding of the contracts for ArriveCAN.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Okay.

Mr. Deputy.

[Paul Thompson]

It would be the procurement branch that would administer these contracts, and some of them involved pre-existing supply arrangements whereby contractors would have pre-qualified. Those would have been developed in advance of when the call-ups were made against those existing supply arrangements.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

If I can, Mr. Thompson, what I'm looking to find out is on a rather large contract awarded to a company called GC Strategies. It's not clear who initiated that contact with GC Strategies.

I'm wondering whether you can tell this committee today which official initiated that contact with them and, if not, whether you could undertake to provide that in writing to this committee.

[Paul Thompson]

GC Strategies is a Canadian IT staffing firm that was pre-qualified on a list of suppliers, and the department had the authority to call up. I understand that company did work with CBSA in the past, and they chose to engage them subsequently on work on the ArriveCAN project.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

The decision would have been one by an individual employee. In the face of having multiple companies, Deloitte, Google and GC Strategies, it was up to one employee to award that sole-source contract to them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We need a brief answer, Mr. Thompson.

[Paul Thompson]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The role of PSPC in this case was to pre-qualify suppliers. It's up to the department to request a call-up. It would have been the department that initiated the call-up and made the selection amongst the available—

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

That was the CBSA.

[Paul Thompson]

It was the CBSA, the client department, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you, Mr. Barrett.

Next is Mr. Jowhari, please, for six minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome, Minister. In your opening remarks, you said the department has launched a supplier diversity action plan with the aim of increasing participation of under-represented groups in federal procurement.

I'd like to ask a question specifically about indigenous procurement. We see that PSPC has done a lot to improve the diversity of indigenous businesses in the supply chain of the federal government. Can you please elaborate on the indigenous businesses that have been awarded contracts since the pandemic started? In your opinion, where has our government made improvements and what programs worked well?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Jowhari.

Certainly trying to improve diversity of indigenous businesses is something I think our government takes very seriously. In fact, it's almost a hallmark of our government's ambition.

At PSPC—and I looked into this quite closely—we set a target that at least 5% of federal contracts should be awarded to businesses managed and led by indigenous peoples. We are modernizing procurement practices in a way that supports members of our communities who have been historically left out, including indigenous businesses. Obviously over the years, there have been various barriers to indigenous businesses entering into the opportunity to have business with government projects.

Specifically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, PSPC awarded 42 contracts to self-identified indigenous businesses, collectively worth over $197 million, including for logistics, air charter services, accommodation, cleaning services, IT professional services, medical and laboratory supplies, masks, hand sanitizers and thermometers.

We're continuing to look at what barriers exist so that we can continue this trend. Of course, if we can possibly get over the 5%, we would be extremely happy to do that. That's an ongoing piece of work that our department is focusing on.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

As a clarification, are we at the 5% that we're trying to achieve with...? I believe it was 43 contracts that you talked about. Where would that position us?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

I think we're on the track to 5%, but we're not quite there yet.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Okay.

I'll change topics. Could you supply some of the examples of the work PSPC has done on greening in the national capital region to get us to net zero by a 2030 timeline?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Yes, indeed.

One of the major interests of our deputy of PSPC is looking at buildings in terms of what we can do. Obviously, buildings are a source of greenhouse gas emissions, and we have the ambition to get to net zero by the 2030 timeline. What PSPC has been doing is modernizing the national capital region, in particular, through a district energy system, which is providing heating services to 80 buildings and cooling services to 67 buildings in the region. This type of change will result in a 92% reduction in GHG emissions by 2025, so we're definitely on track.

I also had the opportunity to go and visit one of the new workspaces that has been piloted in Orleans in the national capital region. With the future of work, we're anticipating that workplaces will look very different. Obviously, through COVID, we've had the opportunity to use Zoom and to have hybrid situations, where it's appropriate, of course.

I visited a workspace that was essentially a number of work stations and a room for team meetings. Employees would go to this workplace on a needs basis, essentially, when they needed to have some contact directly or when they wanted a quiet space they didn't have at home. Nobody actually owns a work station. It's simply a place where you can go and work, and it seems to be very well received by employees. That particular location was part of what we're trying to do in terms of greening government.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

On the same greening of government, is there anything on the fleet management that you or your officials could share with us?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Certainly, we're looking at vehicles and so on. Again, you heard Mr. Thompson saying that there's a commitment to net-zero emissions by 2030 on the fleet.

How many vehicles would that involve?

[Paul Thompson]

Over the next seven years, we plan to convert the fleet. We're now working on having either hybrid or battery electric vehicles as the preferred purchases. There's a plan over the next seven years to convert to a 100% zero-emissions vehicle fleet by 2030.