Government Operations Committee on May 7th, 2026

[Dominic Laporte]

Thanks for the question.

A very small number of vendors were located in countries with which we do not have trade agreements. I would need to get back to you in terms of the specific values attached to those contracts, but the number was fairly small.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Can you submit a list to the committee of countries that would no longer have access to Canadian procurement with this policy in place?

[Dominic Laporte]

Yes.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Does your department plan to make it more difficult for middle-man firms, such as GC Strategies, to bid on federal procurement opportunities?

[Dominic Laporte]

We've put a lot of strengthening measures in place, especially for professional services. We are moving from staff augmentation to outcome-based contracts. We've put in place caps on the duration and the value of those contracts. We are also doing a mandatory benchmarking of the cost of resources.

In terms of what we've learned from ArriveCAN through the various audits of the AG and OPO, strengthened measures have been put in place, and we are challenging our client department much more when it comes to requirements.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

I don't know who exactly in PSPC this question is for.

What's the timeline for your department to send the Defence Investment Agency off on its own and kick it out of the nest, so to say? It's been a year already.

[Michael Hammond]

You rightly point out that it's currently a special operating agency within PSPC. As was announced as part of the defence strategy in February, it was determined that this agency would become a separate entity.

The work to set up that agency will be under way, and there are required legislative changes associated with that.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Is there a timeline?

[Michael Hammond]

I do not have specific timelines associated with that. It will depend on the tabling of the legislation and when that comes into force.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much.

We'll finish up with Mr. Guay.

Welcome to OGGO, sir.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I am happy to be here with you today.

My thanks to the officials for joining us.

According to PSPC's departmental plan, the department intends to move forward with digital procurement documents and to better monitor project performance.

Mr. Hammond, could you explain how the changes will affect suppliers and departments?

What changes are they likely to see as these systems move forward?

[Dominic Laporte]

I will answer your question, Mr. Guay.

We already have an electronic procurement solution in place. Suppliers doing business with the federal government have electronic access to all calls for tender. More than 88,000 suppliers are registered. In addition, we have 19,207 contracts in the electronic procurement system, the EPS, with a total value of $54 billion.

The beauty of it is that the platform is used by municipalities, territories and provinces. So we are able to have one place where suppliers can access the calls for tender. Of course, it needs to be improved. We want much more standardization of clauses. We also want to simplify our calls for tender, especially for small and medium suppliers. Doing business with the federal government can unfortunately be complicated sometimes. How can we simplify things?

About three weeks ago, we launched Procura, our new chatbot. More than 1,000 people have used it already. It provides information on the procurement process in real time and helps our suppliers by making it more accessible.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you very much for your answer, Mr. Laporte.

Could one of you tell me about how these projects are progressing?

[Dominic Laporte]

The role of Public Services and Procurement Canada is often to establish the contract. The clients follow up on how it evolves on a daily basis. They make the payments. Our role is to manage the suppliers. We want to make sure that suppliers who do a good job, on time and on budget, will continue to do business with us.

We are in the process of setting up a performance monitoring system for suppliers. Each supplier will have a rating, which will allow them to win more contracts when they bid in the future. Conversely, if a supplier's work is not so good and they do not abide by the requirements of the contract, the rating will go down.

That's the role PSPC plays each day. We are in the process of adding a new module to our electronic solution in order to streamline it.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Will that be done jointly with the departments?

Will information be exchanged?

[Dominic Laporte]

That is an excellent question.

We are working closely with the departments in order for them to supply the ratings. We can then compile and validate the ratings and send them to the suppliers.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Davis, the main estimates contain an amount of $101.4 million designated as new funding.

Can you explain the main initiatives that the new funding will support?

[Scott Davis]

Thank you for the question.

The question has two parts. A part of the funding goes to Shared Services Canada each time the number of federal employees increases.

As an example, when National Defence increased the number of its employees, we received a certain amount for some tools and to include those new employees. This year, that's $63.9 million and it includes previous years for the other departments that increased their staff.

The other amount has to do with the question that was asked earlier. It is to fund the information management solution and any security events, as part of our cybersecurity.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you very much.

I would like to go back to a subject we were discussing. It was about CANChat and the artificial intelligence being deployed through departments and agencies.

What steps are being taken to make sure people understand the tool and the use of artificial intelligence? For many government employees, it's all new.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I have to interrupt. I'm afraid there's no time left for an answer, but perhaps you can provide it to us in writing.

Thank you very much for being with us today.

There's been a lot of information requested from you. As a quick reminder, this committee has passed a motion that we require it in writing within 21 days, to the clerk, lest you be brought back before us. Thank you very much.

Before you go, I have a couple of very quick questions.

Mr. Davis, you've been with us several times before, and I think we asked you once about, or you mentioned once, the number of cyber-attacks we receive on a daily basis. We know some of them are by foreign entities. Are any of them referred to the RCMP or police for follow-up?

[Scott Davis]

As the CFO, and in charge of procurement, I'd say it's probably better that my answer comes back in writing, because of the existence of the tripartite and so on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Perfect. That's wonderful.

Mr. MacKillop, thanks for being with us today. It's fabulous to have you with us.

I want to follow up on Mrs. Jansen's question about the clothing allowance, because that came out of an Order Paper question from my office. We understand there are certain outfits that are ceremonial, and it's understandable that there's an allowance for that. The previous GG was using the allowance for everyday things like runners, shoes, casualwear. Can we be assured that we won't see a repeat of that money being used for such items? Provide it in writing, if necessary.

Quickly, Ms. Steele, you mentioned clearing the backlog. I understand we'll go department by department, which makes sense.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

I have a point of order, Chair.

I'm confused. Are we doing another round?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

No, this is the chair's prerogative to ask questions. Thank you.

Ms. Steele, let's say, for the sake of argument, that we clear PSPC first and switch it over. Will you ensure that the entire backlog for that test department is cleared?

You will. That's wonderful. Thank you very much.

I have a last quick one for you, Mr. Hammond. I want to chat about the integrity regime. There's a company that has received a fair number of grants and contributions from the government, as well as contracts. It's Lafarge, which has recently been convicted in France and the U.S. for paying for or bribing, I guess, ISIS and other terrorist entities abroad.

Could you provide in writing why that company has not been subject to the integrity regime in Canada? It seems to very clearly violate appendix 2, subparagraph 1(f)(i), the primary ground, and then paragraph 1(k) on the integrity regime.

Thank you very much for being with us, everyone. We look forward to your responses.

Mr. Davis, I think you've been with us three or four times in the last month. Hopefully, we won't see you for a while. Thank you again.

We'll suspend for about four minutes to bring in our new witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you for your patience. We are back in session.

We welcome back Mr. Matthews and his team.

Mr. Matthews, go ahead for a couple of seconds, sir.