Government Operations Committee on March 4th, 2022

[Paul Thompson]

The policy allows for us to gather information as it's provided. If there are allegations, we take those into account.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Have we done that at all?

[Paul Thompson]

I was just going to complete the answer.

In the fall, we added new clauses into all of the contracts we have that allow for termination when there's a credible allegation of any involvement with forced labour, so that is a—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Who is making these allegations, whistle-blowers or the public?

[Paul Thompson]

We have an integrity regime, and if the allegation is deemed to be credible, it will be acted on. There's information exchange with other governments around the world that have similar regimes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Are we, the Government of Canada, actively investigating or actively auditing any of the firms we are purchasing from?

[Paul Thompson]

There is a regime in place that receives allegations and deals with them, and we have the mechanisms now in place to terminate their contracts.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

PSPC is not actively, proactively auditing any of them.

[Paul Thompson]

There is an integrity regime that actively looks at these issues.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I want to follow up on something I think Mr. Johns was asking regarding purchasing from indigenous people.

We did a study here three and a half years ago. Part of the recommendations was that PSPC was to start tracking contracts to indigenous people, women and people of colour. I have an Order Paper question we submitted, and the answer is that, apart from PSPC marginally tracking a few, government departments are not doing that. This is three and a half years later.

PSPC was only able to identify 80-some contracts to indigenous people and one to a person of colour. It's three and a half years later. Every year, the departmental plan said it is going to do something, and it is never done. How difficult is it to track or get going on this? We're never going to improve the system unless we can compare how we're doing, and every year the results are to be determined.

[Paul Thompson]

Mr. Chair, on that, I alluded to the track of work we have on the indigenous side. That's where we're most advanced. We are optimistic that we will meet or exceed the target within PSPC. We've been very close, above and below it, in the last couple of years.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

The committee's unanimous recommendation was to track for all these equity groups. What's lacking in getting this done? Does it need a political decision, or does it need the deputy minister of PSPC to say “Start tracking”?

This is the will of Parliament. What's stopping us from helping these groups?

[Paul Thompson]

Indeed, this is an important track of work. One of the issues is the definitions based on which the data will be tracked. That's not an easy question. There are different perspectives.

I am joined today by a colleague who is leading this work, who can say a bit more about some of the challenges of data and definitions.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

The government has definitions, because we've gone through this. We've asked the witnesses how to define “women-led business”, so we have our definitions.

Therefore, again, it's not in the matter of definitions. The government has definitions of “women-led” or “indigenous-owned”. Why can't we? In the entire Government of Canada, one contract is noted to businesses of people of colour.

[Paul Thompson]

Mr. Chair, with respect to indigenous businesses, there has been $442 million in contracting over the last three years and 1,400 contracts with indigenous companies.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

There are 44 listed by the government. That's 44 out of, what, 20,000 contracts issued?

[Paul Thompson]

I'm not sure of the data source that you have there, but I'd be happy to—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It's an Order Paper question. It's from the Library of Parliament.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

If you could respond to that in writing, we would appreciate getting that.

Thank you.

We'll now go to Mr. Kusmierczyk for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In my riding, we have a constituent, whose name is Gurjeet, who follows very closely the happenings in Ottawa and on Parliament Hill, the different announcements and press conferences. Gurjeet depends on sign language interpretation as well. According to PSPC's 2020-21 departmental results, the department “implemented video remote sign language interpretation, ensuring accessible communications for deaf, deafened, and hard-of-hearing Canadians, especially during the Prime Minister's press conferences.”

How do PSPC and the Translation Bureau select events for which sign language interpretation is provided? Do they plan to increase that service in the coming years?

[Paul Thompson]

Mr. Chair, I might need to turn to one of my colleagues for the specifics on that. I'm generally aware of the offering we have in this space. Perhaps I can turn to Arianne Reza, our associate deputy minister, for any views on that.

[Arianne Reza, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

Thank you very much for the question.

Indeed, we have been working very hard to increase our slate of services along the lines of what we're offering in supporting the accessibility legislation that came into effect a couple of years ago. We're looking at offering the services for Canadians when there are official events, as well as to employees so that everybody can participate in the workplace.

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

Just to follow up on that, are we looking to broaden those offerings as well? Is that the direction in which we're heading?

[Arianne Reza]

We'll have to come back on the specifics of that in terms of what the future suite of work looks like. At this stage, we're hopefully in a ramp-up, but we'll need to see what a steady state looks like.

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

That's great. Thank you very much for your response.

I have a question regarding the procurement of electric vehicles. Obviously, climate change is at the top of all our minds and we need to be doing all we can to ensure that we're taking action against climate change. What is PSPC doing to implement green initiatives? In particular, what are the developments around the electric vehicle fleet?

I ask that because I represent a riding that has over 5,000 workers at Stellantis, which produces the world-class, world-renowned, award-winning hybrid Chrysler Pacifica. One of my ambitions and one of my goals is to see a minister pull up on Parliament Hill in a Chrysler Pacifica.

What are we doing at PSPC to encourage the electrification of our fleets on Parliament Hill and in departments in general?