Government Operations Committee on Feb. 26th, 2026

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

First, I am pleased and proud to hear about the high level of compliance highlighted by the OECD. It is important to take note of this, as it demonstrates the credibility and effectiveness of your work. I am very grateful for this. It would be unacceptable if this impartiality were not deemed absolute. I will fight for this.

I really do have a number of questions. If I understand correctly, the interim appointment ends in four days and you have not heard any news yet.

[Jason Jacques]

No, we have not heard any news yet. It is true, there are still four days left. We are eager to hear the federal government's announcement about the next parliamentary budget officer.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Not only did the committee propose an impartial process to ensure your office's legitimacy, but, also, there are four days left and you have not heard anything. I truly sympathize with the entire team. I wanted to make that clear. It's unacceptable.

Let's talk about the $5.4 billion in voted authorities. Some 56 organizations identified additional needs. Is that number unusual? Is it a reflection of poor initial budget planning?

[Govindadeva Bernier, Director, Budgetary Analysis, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer]

Thank you for your question.

In terms of the number of organizations, I must say I do not have the figures here to compare them to figures in other supplementary estimates (C). This year, the amount was relatively low compared to previous years. I tend to believe that, since the amount is slightly lower, the number of organizations is probably also lower than in the past.

I imagine that, for a large organization like the government, good planning in real time is challenging.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

For my benefit, I would like to know if the parliamentary budget officer assesses how voted authorities are used compared to statutory authorities in a supplementary budget. Can a strategic shift occur?

[Govindadeva Bernier]

Are you talking about a transfer from one vote to another? We have found that, as in all estimates, there are also transfers in the supplementary estimates (B) and the supplementary estimates (A). Sometimes there are indeed reallocations from a vote 1 to a vote 5, for example, i.e., from capital to operating or vice versa. Again, I do not think there were any more than usual this year.

In addition, organizations requesting these transfers must still get Parliament's approval first. They are then required to provide sufficient justification to the Treasury Board Secretariat before requesting the transfer in the supplementary estimates. Again, I think this is an opportunity for parliamentarians to ask officials and invited ministers to explain some of these transfers in more detail. We do not have all this information.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I am quite concerned when we talk about fairness and impartiality in relation to regulatory sandboxes, so I would like to demystify this.

We now know that the $1 billion allocated to Canada Post is a repayable loan. It's a shortfall. We have not managed to plug this giant leak.

Based on your analysis, is this support temporary or rather a sign that this entity is unsustainable?

[Mark Creighton, Senior Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer]

Thank you for the question. I will respond in English.

Under section 31 of the Canada Post Corporation Act, the Minister of Finance is able to “place at the disposal of the Corporation such amounts as may be required” for it to continue to operate. Subsection 32(1) of that same act requires Canada Post to reimburse the government, from its annual revenues, should there be sufficient funds available. If there are not, there is subsection 32(2) of that act, where, if revenues from the corporation are insufficient to pay back what was given under section 31, the Minister of Finance can “cause the amount of the insufficiency to be included, in the form of a deficit appropriation item, in the next estimates”.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Okay. We are still waiting for answers. We do not have all of them yet. Basically, we are wondering about Canada Post's primary mandate and objective to serve the entire country. For example, I am going to the Îles de la Madeleine. If there's no Canada Post office, but we need medical supplies and other….

I have 30 seconds left. Let's talk about defence and security. The creation of the central vote, vote 50, allows Treasury Board to supplement other votes. Is this a way to accelerate or circumvent normal budgetary processes?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Give a really brief answer. I'm sorry.

[Jason Jacques]

The Government of Canada has used the same approach in the past. In the next round of questions, I will be able to provide more details.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

Mr. Patzer, go ahead, please.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Thank you very much.

Thanks again for coming to committee. I really appreciate the good work that you do.

I just want to start off quickly with the issue around the lapsed or frozen funding. I noticed that your report mentions that roughly 27% is all that's really been reported as a percentage. It's unclear what the other 73% are. I'm just wondering if you could elaborate on what that means, and if there's any clever accounting happening with these frozen allotments.

[Régine Cléophat, Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer]

Sure. Thank you for the question.

This number was obtained by comparing the permanent frozen allotments in supplementary estimates (C) against the total permanent frozen allotments that you would find in the public accounts. What we wanted to highlight was that, theoretically, what you find in the supplementary estimates is technically a leading indicator of what you would find in the public accounts, and potentially what is about to lapse. Based on the figures that we've seen in the last few years, these don't really give you an indication of the permanent frozen allotment numbers that you would find in the public accounts. That's where that 26% average comes from.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Right, but that would also indicate that there's a bit of a lack of transparency on what's happening there. Would that be correct?

[Régine Cléophat]

I would say it certainly doesn't inform you on how much the government will potentially lapse.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

When there weren't supplementary estimates (C) tabled last year, that didn't help either. Okay. Thank you.

I'm wondering because, based on the graph that you have in the report, a lot of it will be carried forward into the next fiscal year. We've heard from you guys in the past that there's a lot of funding that is reannounced. It's not necessarily new funding but just reannounced funding. When you looked into this, did you see any things that were just reannouncements that were added in rather than new budgetary items? How much of it was carried forward versus actual new commitment?

[Régine Cléophat]

In line with what you're saying, we did notice that, in budget 2025 and supplementary estimates (C), there were measures that received appropriations from earlier estimates, and those measures were considered budget measures because they were reintroduced in the budget. For transparency, we did want to highlight that.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Thank you.

This is a little bit more on the issue around Canada Post. The Kaplan report said that, with last year's loan, that repayment would require “the complete suspension of disbelief.” They're getting another over $1 billion allotted in this update that we are seeing now. They are the same terms that are outlined in the Canada Post Corporation Act: that they may repay this if they are able to become solvent.

In your research into this, do you have any indication that Canada Post will be able to get to a point where they could at least begin repaying the last loan, never mind the loan they are now asking for in this update?

[Mark Creighton]

Looking at their annual reports for the last 10 years or so, they have not been profitable on an income basis since 2017. There has not been a profitable year on an operating basis since 2020; however, the operating margin was negative in 2018 and 0.1 in 2019, so it precedes the pandemic by a few years.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Five years ago, there was a strategic plan submitted to the government, and nothing has been done on it. Do you think it is a little bit absurd that they can keep coming back asking for money without being afforded the ability to make the changes required to at least try to right the ship?

[Jason Jacques]

I'd say that, on our end, it's outside of our mandate to comment on how the Government of Canada manages its decision-making processes around Crown corporations.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

It's just as a general practice, though. I understand that you're not going to get into the weeds of it, and I do appreciate that. When we look at how taxpayers' money is being spent, these are repayable loans, but there's basically an opt-out. There's no incentive, really, to repay it. I think that's the problem that Canadians see with this. They can keep coming back every year for $1 billion. They're not given the ability to make the changes, and this keeps happening over and over again. Is that not problematic?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry to interrupt you. There's no time left for a response. Perhaps we can get back to Mr. Patzer next time.

Mr. Osborne, please go ahead, sir.