Evidence of meeting #65 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Joanne Thompson Liberal St. John's East, NL
On a very personal note, in my province we introduced a health accord that really looks at health outcomes across the continuum of determinants of health. I'm very hopeful that the data management piece is going to show the impact of housing, access to mental health services, transportation, etc., on health outcomes. I'm excited about that.
The last time you were here, you said—
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thanks very much.
Colleagues, if you don't mind, I have a couple of questions for the PBO, and then we'll wrap up. I just have some housekeeping items on some budget stuff.
Mr. Giroux, thank you for bringing up the fixed budget dates. I recall that it was a recommendation from two previous OGGO reports on the estimates, and something I'll continue to push for as well. Thanks for bringing that up.
I just want to ask you this quickly. Mrs. Kusie brought up the issue around inflation and housing. I'm wondering if the PBO has looked into the effects of money laundering and the price of housing. Have you looked into that, or is that something you could look into for us?
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
It's not something we have looked at, because data would probably be quite difficult to obtain on money laundering. I'm not sure if there is a government agency that has solid data on money laundering. If they do, I hope they do something against it. It's something that might be doable. It might be very difficult to do, depending on the quality of data that is available, if there's anything available at all.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
If that's something you could do, maybe you could get back to us, if that's a doable thing for you.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Okay.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
It looks like the government settled with most of the public sector unions. I'm not going to say that there have been wildly inflated numbers, but there have been numbers from one extreme to the other on the cost. Would you be able to provide to us what the costs will be from the changes? Then, is there such a thing as an all-in cost currently for the average FTE for the public service? Is that something you could provide to us? I've seen, again, some wildly exaggerated claims on both sides, so I'm wondering if we could clear the air, so to speak, and get an actual number.
Are we fine with having that reported to us, colleagues?
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Okay.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
That's wonderful.
That is all I had, except to pass on my sincere thanks.
About a month ago, OGGO passed a motion requiring witnesses to get back to us within three weeks of all requests. You're the very first ones we've had to put this threat across to, even though I know you were planning on doing it anyway.
I want to thank you sincerely for everything you continue to do for us. I will dismiss the three of you.
Colleagues, just really quickly, we need to approve the budget for the estimates. That's the usual providing of headsets, even though I don't think we'll need to.
Can we adopt the proposed budget, in the amount of $1,500, for the study of the subject matter of the main estimates 2023-24?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you, colleagues.
Then we have a request from the Auditor General. She is doing a study on the McKinsey contracts. She has asked for her and her named staff to have access to the McKinsey docs we have so far. She needs permission from us to grant her that access. I assume we will; otherwise, it's going to cost a lot of money for her to re-access that stuff.
Are we in agreement, colleagues?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
That's wonderful.
On Wednesday, we have three departments with us: PCO, the Transportation Safety Board and Defence Construction. We had two sets of meetings booked to bring in the various departments about the redacted documents. That's also set for Wednesday, so 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and then 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., although I'm hearing that, because of resources, there is a chance that the second part, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., may not happen. We will know tomorrow. I'm told there's a strong chance that we may lose the second part, but I'll let everyone know tomorrow.
Go ahead, Mr. Jowhari.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the opportunity.
I just want to make sure that it's on the record that the Liberal team has raised a concern about two back-to-back meetings and the fact that last Wednesday's meeting got cancelled without any notice and without consultation. We also noticed that the meeting for this Wednesday has also been scheduled without any notice or consultation.
I've communicated that to you. I just wanted to make sure that it's also on the record.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Sure. For these two meetings, there will probably be a very last-minute notice, to be honest, because it's very difficult to get the resources. For example, the clerk and I were discussing on Friday that we got resources for Friday night. The notice is so last-minute.
I apologize, but these extra meetings will have a last-minute notice. It will be one or two days' notice. We'll provide as much notice as possible.
I'm trying to get resources for next Tuesday, but I can't promise anything, because it's given and then it's taken away. I understand.
The comments we got back were that we would go ahead with the meetings and leave it to us to try to figure out a time. Is there a real opposition to having them back to back? We chose back-to-back because that was just the only time we had available. If that's not a preference, we'll try not to, but right now we're just basing it.... We're trying not to do Friday evening, but we'll take what's given to us.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you.
Having consulted with the team on the Liberal side, there is definitely a preference not to have it back to back.
Thank you, sir.
Conservative
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
There is definitely a preference from our side not to have it on Friday night. A lot of us already have events planned in our communities and ridings.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
No, we're trying not to do it Friday night, or even Thursday night. We recognize that it's difficult in terms of travel times, especially for people like Mr. Johns and Ms. Thompson.
I don't want to say that it's getting imposed upon us and we're getting scraps, but there are so few resources. This is what is available. At the same time, the poor clerk has to run out and try to find the nine departments to get them to agree. A lot is out of our control, but I will take what I'm hearing and we'll try to work around it as best we can.
If there's nothing else, colleagues, we are adjourned.