Government Operations Committee on Dec. 4th, 2025

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Yes, but it shouldn't even be allowed to be read at this point. We have—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I am allowing it.

Continue, Mr. Seeback.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I've read the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

That's perfect.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Would you provide it in writing for us?

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I will provide it in writing in both official languages.

I'm going to share the rest of my time with Kelly Block.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Okay.

Mrs. Block, you have five minutes

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for joining us today, although I will voice my extreme disappointment over the fact that Minister Lightbound is not appearing before this committee to defend the supplementary estimates, nor is the deputy minister. It's standard practice for a minister and a deputy minister to appear before parliamentarians to defend their estimates, so I'm both frustrated and disappointed, to say the least.

Given the most recent quarterly report from Canada Post, we find that they will run out of funds by December 31, 2025. That's at the end of this year. Their financial report states, “The Corporation will need to access short-term financing”.

Is there a current request from Canada Post to access more funding from the government?

[Michael Hammond]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.

I'm actually going to turn to my colleague Lorenzo, who is the lead on the Canada Post file for PSPC.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you.

[Lorenzo Ieraci, Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Planning and Communications, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

Thank you for the question.

As noted, Canada Post has obviously posted a third-quarter loss that was fairly substantive, and that followed the second-quarter loss.

The Government of Canada made a $1-billion repayable loan that was made available to Canada Post for this year. Given their current projections, they will likely need to have some additional support on an ongoing basis. There are conversations going on right now between Canada Post and our department as well as others, in terms of how the corporation can continue to operate in the current environment.

I would note the good news that, on November 21, the union, CUPW, noted that they and Canada Post have reached an agreement in principle, which should help to hopefully resolve the labour dispute that Canada Post and its union have been in for the last two years.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you very much.

You noted that Canada Post and your department are currently in conversations about their financial situation. Does this mean that the government plans to approve another loan or more funding for Canada Post?

[Lorenzo Ieraci]

Thank you for the question.

Those conversations are ongoing, and those items are being discussed and considered. It would probably be premature for me to respond to that question directly.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Given that they have indicated the corporation will need to access short-term financing by the end of this year and that there is nothing in supplementary estimates (B) for them, potentially, is that because you are still having those conversations with Canada Post? By what vehicle would you be providing additional funding to Canada Post?

[Lorenzo Ieraci]

Thank you for the question. I have a two-part response, if you'll permit it.

First, Canada Post generates revenues, of course, through their ongoing activities. They also have other mechanisms available to them as a Crown corporation to be able to seek access to funding in order to maintain their operations. As the Canada Post Corporation Act identifies, the corporation is able to access funds from the government in situations where they need to.

There is no funding for Canada Post in supplementary estimates (B), as you identified. In theory, in terms of how Canada Post would be able to access funding, the two vehicles available to the Crown corporation—beyond those I've just mentioned—would be either through main estimates or through supplementary estimates. Supplementary estimates (B) obviously has passed, but it could be either through supplementary estimates or through the main estimates that they would be able to access additional funding, should that decision be made.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We'll go to Ms. Khalid, please, for six minutes and then to Madame Gaudreau for six minutes.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for appearing today. I'll start with PSPC, if that's okay.

According to the departmental results report for 2024-25, PSPC successfully reduced the cost of procurement services to $0.93 per $100 of the contract value, which is significantly ahead of your $1.75 target. What operational efficiencies or innovations helped you to get to that reduction? Are there lessons for other departments to take from there?

[Michael Hammond]

Thanks very much for the question.

Maybe I'll turn it over to Dominic Laporte. He's ADM of procurement, and he could speak to some of the efficiencies that are happening within the procurement branch.

[Dominic Laporte, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Procurement Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

Thank you.

We are very pleased with these results. I would say the key to this is that we're seeing the progress made with the electronic procurement solution. Most of our contracts now, 99%, are leveraging that solution. It means that bidders are able to file their bids directly into EPS.

There's much more involvement from our procurement officers. Just in terms of data analysis, there's much more that we can do. It's really reaping the benefits of the last few years from the investment that has been made into electronic procurement solutions. At the same time, we're also leveraging our procurement vehicle that we use. I think the more we have clients leveraging, for example vehicles like standing offers or supply arrangements, the more we're able to achieve those savings.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Thank you for that. I find that to be very enlightening. I appreciate that.

Going on, that same report shows that 94% of procurement requests were fulfilled within service level standards, which is well above the 80% target. Can you talk to us a little bit about what factors enabled PSPC to achieve these high levels of timeliness? How is the department continuing to improve procurement efficiency?

[Dominic Laporte]

That's a good question. Thank you for that.

Again, with the danger of repeating myself, EPS has been one of the drivers. I would also say that we're working with our clients to make sure that we put in place a procurement solution that is going to be used for many kinds of different requirements. That goes a long way, and we're able, basically, to fast-track procurement.

I have to also say that we invest every day in the training of our procurement officers. I'm very pleased with our 1,300 procurement officers working with PSPC. Learning is happening. Efficiencies are being derived as we invest in technology.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Thank you.

How does that play into our buy Canadian policy, support Canada policies, knowing that a lot of Canadian businesses are SMEs? How does PSPC plan to work to ensure that our policies are met?

[Dominic Laporte]

Well, of course, we want to become our best customer. We want to make sure that every dollar invested in procurement has an economic impact for Canadian suppliers. As you know, the buy Canadian policy was announced by the Prime Minister on September 5. Our department is working on that as we speak. We also want to prioritize the use of Canadian steel, Canadian aluminum and Canadian wood.

We want to prioritize Canadian suppliers. When we have bids, how can we make sure that taxpayer money goes to Canadian suppliers? It's the same thing when it comes to Canadian content. We make sure that we're going to be driving Canadian content. By doing that, we're also going to be driving the supply chains of Canadian industries. It's going to be key to adapt. This is where we can really use procurement as a key lever for economic development and to face the current situation.