Evidence of meeting #86 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 macdonald.
A video is available from Parliament.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
November 14th, 2023 / 2:20 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Did the CBSA president task you or Mr. MacDonald or anyone else with filling the CBSA's need in response to Bill C-65? What was the president's initiative?
2:20 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
It wasn't a task. At the end of a briefing with the executive committee around the sexual harassment cases that were happening in CBSA, he turned to me, as chief information officer, to ask if there were any innovative ways. It was a question to look at what was out there in industry that could potentially solve sexual harassment in a different way. I then turned that to my DG of innovation to look for a solution.
2:20 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Going back to the standard practices, we've heard about standard practices, and I find them outrageous when it comes to the procurement here. PSPC admitted that there's literally no limit on what the commission's contractors can pocket on government contracts. If we have a project like Botler's software, where the contractor takes 15% or 20% and the subcontractor takes another 15% to 30%, then the people doing the work get what's left. Let's say $100,000 of federal government money is spent on a project like that. It could end up being only $56,000 that goes to the project work.
The government could get the exact same thing for half as much based on that. There are contracts with even more layers and deeper commissions than that, as you know. The government is admitting that it doesn't know how deep these commissions go.
The Treasury Board Secretariat is mandated to make policy recommendations to protect tax dollars. As a CTO, you do everything you can to stop this runaway gravy train by imposing a limit on commissions. Why hasn't the government hired its own IT recruiters? By the numbers we're seeing, you could hire 10 IT recruiters at the Governor General's salary, based on what GC Strategies got, and still save millions of dollars a year.
2:20 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
My role as chief technology officer is setting enterprise direction on IT. There are different parts of the Treasury Board that set directives on expenditures and other policies. I can't speak on behalf of all of Treasury Board.
2:20 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I find that hard to believe. As the CTO, you can't make recommendations to hire in-house to save millions of dollars of taxpayer money and have that expertise in-house. You're saying that you have no say in it, no involvement in improving efficiencies and saving taxpayers' dollars.
2:20 p.m.
Chief Technology Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
In terms of the technology direction, decisions and enterprise standards I set, that is fundamental to what we do, not from a procurement perspective but also taking into account the different cloud technologies and others to ensure that the additional solutions we deliver are delivered as effectively as possible. Absolutely, taxpayer dollars are front and centre in the technology perspective.
The element around procurement is a different part of Treasury Board Secretariat and PSPC, but taxpayer dollars, in terms of the investments and technology investments we make, are front and centre in everything we do.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you very much. We are done with that round.
Thank you, everyone, for your patience, as always.
Mr. Doan, thank you for hanging around for an extra 25 minutes.
Unless there's anything else, we are adjourned.