Government Operations Committee on March 12th, 2026

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I appreciate your touching on the efficiency piece and the fact that our public service is working with other public services in other jurisdictions to learn from best practices. I'm glad you touched on that.

I have a quick follow-up on that. How will giving ministers increased autonomy to grant regulatory exemptions improve service delivery for Canadians and help our government deliver on its mandate?

[Arianne Reza]

I'll give a very practical example. PSPC is the common service provider to about 103 different government departments. When government departments come and they have a business requirement or a capability they want to acquire, to get to that level of being able to procure it and engage with Canadian SMEs or Canadians large-scale, there are a lot of various elements that have to be managed. Some are on the security side. Some are on accessibility legislation. Some are even on the diversity of our supplier base. Being able to move more rapidly through that and provide the procurement apparatus the chance to rationalize all those different regulatory requirements, as well as what will happen internally around some of the Treasury Board policies that we have, our own internal policies, will provide more rapid execution so Canadians will get the goods and services they require.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

How much time do I have, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

You have a minute and 40 seconds.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

That's great.

Can you quickly tell us about the red tape review progress reports?

[Arianne Reza]

As I mentioned.... Maybe I'll start back. Over the summer, there was a concerted effort to look at red tape. We were all asked to look at what we could live without in terms of our regulatory requirements. For PSPC, not only do we have the public works act and the Defence Production Act, but we also have a myriad of other acts. I'm going to say about 20 or 22. I might have to turn to Lorenzo, because I think he helps oversee some of them.

What we did was ask what we could live without. That really is an opportunity for Canadian business, because that regulatory delay, especially for SMEs, is where there's a dwell time, a lag time, that makes a very big difference. We tried to be as minimalist as possible. We walked through the scenarios within that of how we should prioritize which ones would have the highest value to Canadians and to Canadian SMEs, and we provided those to Treasury Board.

For example—I'm looking at my list just to give you a sense of the range, because I think it will be interesting—we have removed some of the regulatory red tape for seized property disposition. When property is seized, whether it's by CBSA or through proceeds of crime or in many other areas, we seize it and hold it and sell it as surplus. Trying to find a faster way to get that out has been helpful. I also noted the translation bureau regulations.

One area where we do a lot of work that has a lot of red tape is controlled goods. If goods coming into Canada have a security risk or a nuclear risk or are controlled substances or are being exported, we provide the apparatus around that. Again, that's key for, let's say, defence contractors to have faster access to their authorities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks very much.

We'll go to Madame Gaudreau, please.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for joining us. Your participation is important.

We always have questions for you. You won't be surprised by mine. In fact, I always put myself in the citizens' shoes. They want to know more.

I'll start with the increase in budgetary authorities.

Public Services and Procurement Canada's budget will reach $7.4 billion in 2025-2027. That's an increase of more than 37%.

What are we telling people about this?

That's a huge increase in two years. How do you justify that increase?

[Arianne Reza]

Thank you very much.

There are a lot of reasons that justify that increase. We received funding for construction of buildings, for properties, for land. Bridges and buildings cost a lot of money. We need to have funding sources to pay for the real estate.

Moreover, we really want to make sure we can start the process of disposing of real property. So we need funding to cover that work.

We also do a lot of translation and we have to cover the interpreters' salaries, among other things. There are a lot of funding lines within the department.

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

I know the Board of Internal Economy is discussing this. I'm very concerned that tenders are being awarded to the lowest bidders, but you're telling me the quality factor, among others, won't be ignored and it's being discussed.

[Arianne Reza]

Yes, it is.

We always look at price when it comes to supply. Even if the quality is the same, we have to set some criteria to determine the best value for Canadians. Sometimes we talk about regulations, but we have to strike a balance so the procurement cost isn't the end game. It's very important.

Ms. Bertrand, from the receiver general point of view, can you tell us why there's been an increase in the past two years?

Can you give some examples?

[Nathalie Bertrand, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Receiver General and Pension Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

The advertising budget is one that has gone up. There's always been a million dollars set aside for the emergency needs funds. This year, the fund's value increased by $17 million through the supplementary estimates (C) and now sits at $29 million.

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

This leads me to two questions about the mechanisms related to advertising activities. I'll come back to the housing issue later.

What are the control mechanisms in place? People will think there's extra money and wonder what the government plans to do with it. Are we really going to promote the government's political priorities rather than inform citizens? That worries me.

[Nathalie Bertrand]

There are multiple parties involved in advertising, and approval is subject to a lot of control.

At PSPC, we respond to requests from the Privy Council Office, which approves all advertising. Moreover, all ads valued at more than $250,000 are also reviewed by Treasury Board.

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

What I meant is I'm not interested in hearing the “Canada Strong” motto. We want to inform citizens.

Have you also adopted criteria to ensure the message is the same across the country, whether in Quebec or elsewhere? Do you have any mechanisms in place for that?

[Nathalie Bertrand]

The contract managed by Treasury Board is one of those mechanisms, and it's about advertising standards. These standards ensure non-partisan messages in both French and English.

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

Okay. That's perfect.

I want to come back to the housing issue now. I don't have much time left.

The $6.2 million you mentioned is for the public lands for homes plan, which aims to use federal lands. If I understand you correctly, there are costs related to that.

How many sites specifically have been designated? Do we have a number?

[Arianne Reza]

I'll have to get back to you on that. I know we've designated about 88 sites as prime land, sites that'll work well for housing. There are also a lot of sites targeted in the disposal process.

Regarding the $6 million, we'll have to look at how we can use the disposal of real property process to move more quickly. The process takes about nine years, because we have to see who wants access to these properties. That said, housing will be the priority.

The idea is to reduce the time it takes before being able to distribute the land and see what sites are best suited for housing across the country.

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

That's perfect.

In my second turn, I'll ask about the state of affairs, because we talked about the idea of housing in Saint-Sauveur, for example. Now that the MP for the Saint-Sauveur riding is a Liberal, maybe it'll happen more quickly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you, Madame.

Mr. Patzer, go ahead.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I want to pick up on the previous line of questioning from my colleague, Mrs. Block.

When it comes to the transformation plan, there hasn't been a strategic plan approved for Canada Post since 2019. That is pretty ridiculous, given the amount of structural change that needs to happen in Canada Post, yet here we are with another $1-billion loan on the horizon.

Why has there not been a strategic plan approved for Canada Post for seven years? Meanwhile, we're just dumping money down the toilet. What's going on here?

[Arianne Reza]

Let's start with the strategic plan. With the strategic plan, you normally need to come in with a completely covered source of funds. With the structural deficit that Canada Post has been encountering over the last few years.... Let us remember that mail has gone from seven billion pieces of mail to two billion, while the structure in terms of letter delivery standards and the workforce hasn't changed. There's been, I'm going to say, an insurmountable problem. With the new transformation plan, that's now turned into an opportunity to be able to move past this.

I would note that the last time the minister came, he talked about studying it. We're now moving.... Canada Post will be engaging municipalities on the first tranche of it, which is the location of community mailboxes, because that will be a key enabler. That work is under way.

I think the key piece to understand is that there's been a lack of a strategic plan because, fundamentally, there have been a lot of rate-limiting factors in moving forward. Many of those have now been adjusted, and we're on the cusp of knowing how we're going to proceed, including with the labour discussion that is now coming to a close, hopefully.

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

I think the point, though, is that it's not like there was a sudden drop-off in mail. It was a progression over time. I know that the pandemic impacted them as well, for sure, and we can't deny that, but prior to the pandemic, they were already basically operating at a structural loss. There were changes that were needed back then.

If we haven't approved the strategic plan for seven years, that's prevented them from being able to make some of those structural changes that were needed as far back as seven years ago, because I'm sure they would have been looking at this situation internally and trying to understand it. Again, I don't really buy the whole argument that now, all of a sudden, we have to meet the moment and we're going to do this. No. Seven years ago, they identified changes that needed to be made, and none of those changes were made.

Is there a chance that there were some political reasons that this was never done? I ask especially because you just mentioned that community mailboxes were going to be the first bit of it, so how can people not come to the conclusion that this was political?

[Arianne Reza]

I can just speak to the community mailboxes. That is because of the construction season, and because municipalities across Canada are thinking a lot about where they're going to go. It is a natural place to start.

Going back to whether or not there was a structural deficit in prior times, I can say that they were bringing forward their plans. They were covering it off. It became much more stark and apparent, as you know, in the last seven years.

Perhaps Lorenzo has more details.

[Lorenzo Ieraci]

Yes. Thank you, Deputy.

Just to clarify, we're talking about a strategic plan, but I think we're referring to a corporate plan. The last two corporate plans have been approved and are moving forward. We are seeing some progress in this space.

I just wanted to add that. Thank you.