Evidence of meeting #41 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was procurement.
A video is available from Parliament.
Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Yes. We have issued guidance to all departments and agencies from TBS in order to implement that in their programs.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Has Treasury Board identified areas in which the policy cannot realistically be enforced?
Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
It's the requirement of responsible ministers to make that identification.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Are there programs for which buy Canadian is voluntary rather than mandatory?
Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
That would be up to departments to assess. When they are not applying it, I think they are still encouraging it.
Conservative
Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Do you mean with grants and contributions specifically?
Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
With respect to grants and contributions, all departments have so far complied with the requirements to assess their programs by February 16 of this year.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
When will all Crown corps be fully compliant?
Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
I don't have the information on Crown corps. I don't know if my colleague does.
Executive Director, Procurement and Materiel Directorate, Treasury Board Secretariat
Crown corporations were directed on January 9 to comply with the policy, and we have no indication that they have not. They are required to report annually in their corporate plans, so that may be an indication.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Okay.
If a supplier believes a competitor falsely claimed Canadian content, is there a formal challenge process?
Executive Director, Procurement and Materiel Directorate, Treasury Board Secretariat
There are existing formal challenge processes within federal procurement that they can leverage.
Conservative
Executive Director, Procurement and Materiel Directorate, Treasury Board Secretariat
Audits that are conducted as part of an internal audit are made public on departmental websites.
Conservative
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Thank you very much.
Ms. Kealey, my colleague was going to ask you a question about the framework, the instruments that will be supporting your rollout of the policies. Will they be the same for departments and Crown corporations, or will there be some differences?
Acting Executive Director, Financial Management Transfer Payments Policy, Treasury Board Secretariat
With respect to departments, the guidance framework that was issued was drafted by Treasury Board. This applies to all departmental grants and contributions. As I indicated before, there are roughly 700 programs. To date, according to the assessment, departments have indicated that buy Canadian can apply to over 400 of them.
I can't speak to Crown corporations, but I understand there was alignment.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
There was alignment.
In general, as you work with provinces, municipalities and indigenous communities, do you expect that with the collaborative approach you've described to some extent, there will be opportunities to strengthen the policy moving forward?
Acting Executive Director, Financial Management Transfer Payments Policy, Treasury Board Secretariat
Yes. As part of the implementation, we intend to continue to collaborate with our departmental colleagues. They are, as per the policy, the ones responsible for delivering their programs, so they would be engaging with provinces, territories and indigenous communities themselves, but the expectation is that TBS would take lessons learned through implementation and share them across the community.
Liberal
Pauline Rochefort Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
I think that's probably my time. Thank you very much for the opportunity for the additional questions.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thanks very much.
I have a quick question. I apologize that I wasn't paying as much attention....
Are there some Crown corporations that are not subject to...?
Executive Director, Procurement and Materiel Directorate, Treasury Board Secretariat
Yes. I'm not—