Evidence of meeting #21 for Public Accounts in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agreements.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
The agreement also called for a reasonable share of non-tendered contracts to go to parties in those communities. What would be the dollar value per annum, on average, of untendered contracts? What would be a reasonable share of that proportion?
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
If I may, the whole challenge of untendered contracting by the federal government is a difficult one, because it involves things right down to individual acquisition card types of acquisitions. So as a federal government, we have had some challenges in coming to grips with how to define “reasonable share” and how to even track or know which companies are having services purchased from them.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
So what you're in fact saying is that there's no definition, and there's no real target. It's just phraseology that's put in there to make us feel good about it, because we haven't defined it. We have no idea what the actual value of reasonable share may have been through these years, and we have no idea what it might be in the future. Is that correct?
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Provisions in contracting, including this one, are important elements of all land claim agreements. In the last year we have begun to really engage Treasury Board and Public Works and Government Services Canada in developing approaches to procurement that understand the provisions of these land claim agreements.
We're taking such actions as developing with Public Works an e-training guide for procurement officers so that when it comes time to do procurement in a given part of the country, if there's a land claim agreement in place, the provisions of the land claim agreement will prevail. So it's a question of training procurement officers and then developing the monetary system.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
Basically, you've told us that you have no idea what the dollar value of these contracts may have been in this particular case, and hopefully, in the future, you might have an idea. Is that correct? You haven't given us a dollar value, and you're saying that work is being done to try to assess what these amounts may be in the future. So you're basically telling us that nothing has been done.
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I don't believe we know the dollar value in the Inuvialuit settlement region, no.
Liberal
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
In the case of tendered contracts, we will indeed....
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
No, this was referenced as untendered contracts, and as a reasonable share of untendered contracts. Could you give us one example of such a contract being given to any of these communities?
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I'm not sure. We can look into that.
Liberal
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
We may as well use the minute. Thank you.
Mr. Sewell, we're using two different terminologies. You talk about land agreements, and then you talk about implementation. So when you talk about twenty-some of these, are you responsible for the implementation of twenty-some agreements? Because most agreements are concluded with the agreements being signed, are they not?
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
That's just the beginning, sir.
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
Not in my experience with DIAND. We've signed agreements with chiefs and first nations. They vote on it, they approve it, and generally they are conclusive. But we're talking here about agreements that are ongoing. Is the figure 23? You used the figure, Borys. Are there only 23?
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
There are currently 21 land claim agreements in place--modern land claim agreements.
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
So, Mr. Sewell, you sit on twenty-some files. According to some of the information we have, you have between 25 and 50 employees who work with you. Is that correct?
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I have 55 staff.
Liberal
Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB
There are 55 staff who work with you on those twenty-some files. How many people are assigned to this file, specifically? Is there a lead on this file?
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
First of all, the role we play is a coordinating role. We need to work closely with our regional counterparts, our regional offices.
Liberal
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes, I do, sir.
Liberal
Director General, Implementation Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I could, yes, sir.
Liberal
