Public Accounts Committee on March 13th, 2008

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Good.

I have one last question that I want to make sure I get in here as well. It is on paragraphs 4.50 and 4.51. This is a big issue of cost overrun, in the sense that the Auditor General has pointed out that you're going to need additional money. Is the maintenance information management system part of the ITS strategy? If it is, I see some conflicting dates here. It looks like a review estimated that the system would not be fully implemented before 2011. Then in paragraph 4.48, it says that the ITS strategy project is about two years behind schedule and that the completion date has been changed to March 31, 2007.

First, was it completed? March 31, 2007 is a little bit in the past. And do we have a handle on this escalating cost of the maintenance information management system?

[Commr George Da Pont]

With respect to the ITS strategy, we have completed that strategy this month, and we're now into the wind-down phase for the next two or three months. So we have completed it, but we're behind schedule.

With MIMS, last year, or a little over a year ago, I froze making any more capital expenditures on the system because we had commissioned an external review that raised some significant issues on whether or not we were on the right track. I don't want to make further expenditures on it until I'm convinced we have a realistic plan that we can implement before 2011, and at a cheaper cost.

So the focus of the work has been on developing that plan. It is going fairly well, and I expect that we will be able to resume implementation of MIMS in a much quicker and more cost-effective way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you, Mr. Da Pont.

Colleagues, we're now starting the second round.

Mr. Hubbard, you have three minutes.

[Charles Hubbard, Liberal, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We seem to talk about the regions. In terms of the capital itself—Ottawa, right here, in this area—how many coast guard employees are located here, within a small number?

[Commr George Da Pont]

There are around 300 people, out of about 4,700 in the coast guard.

[Charles Hubbard, Liberal, Miramichi, NB]

Mr. Da Pont, one of the frustrations some members have is that people drift through the system and they never seem to get rated the way they should be. You get performance bonuses, and so forth, but....

You were brought into a very difficult situation, I would think, when you arrived at your desk and you looked at all of these and you said, “My predecessor hasn't really met what the Auditor General has suggested should have been done in a year.” I think I know who your predecessor was, but they go somewhere else, and really, you have a major challenge.

Do you feel that you're up to meeting the challenge that the Auditor General has indicated has to be done?

[Commr George Da Pont]

Personally, yes, I feel that I am up to the challenge. I suspect some of these management and administrative issues were perhaps one of the reasons I was appointed into this particular job, because it's an area where I have had some significant experience in previous jobs.

[Charles Hubbard, Liberal, Miramichi, NB]

I guess what I'm going to say—I have only a minute or two left—is that the next time we're back talking about the issue with you, we can see the name George Da Pont and we can see that significant progress has been achieved.

[Commr George Da Pont]

I certainly hope that's the case. You'll get the first test when we submit our year-end report on our business plan.

[Charles Hubbard, Liberal, Miramichi, NB]

As one final point, when you need new ships in your fleet, has all that been approved by the Department of Public Works and Government Services; the bids are out, and you fully expect to see the rejuvenation of your fleet in terms of the billion dollars that is available?

[Commr George Da Pont]

Yes, we work jointly with the public works department on the major procurements of those vessels. Of the 17 new vessels, in fact, we're evaluating the bids for a package of 12 right now. With the other vessels, with the exception of the one that was just approved in the most recent budget, it's my hope that we will have the requests for proposals for those vessels out early next year.

[Charles Hubbard, Liberal, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you, Mr. Hubbard.

Mr. Williams.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm looking at paragraphs 4.52 and 4.53, about the director general of integrated technical services, who apparently reported, “Many of the catastrophic failures that have occurred over the past several years were avoidable.” He goes on to say, “while the recapitalization of any asset base is critical, the various failures have not been caused by age alone, but by the lack of even the most fundamental materiel management system.”

The next paragraph says that the coast guard is going to have this all fixed up by March 31, 2007, which of course begs the question, has it been done?

[Commr George Da Pont]

I think significant progress has been made.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

I would like to remind you, Mr. Da Pont, that this is the end of March 2008. This is 12 months ago. You made the commitment that this would be completed by 12 months ago. This whole series of questions today is about your starting something but never getting it finished.

[Commr George Da Pont]

In fairness, Mr. Chairman, that's the observation of the Auditor General. That was the plan we had in place when the Auditor General looked at the situation in 2006. As I indicated a little earlier, we did not complete the ITS strategy for March 2007. We have completed it this month and we are in the wind-down phase. We are about a year behind schedule on that aspect.

On that ITS strategy, the reason I--

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Okay, we'll just stop there.

I'm going to move on to the human resources strategy now, because it seems to be just as big a boondoggle. I'm looking at paragraph 4.80, the second bullet. It reads: “The Coast Guard has been working for several years on a human resources plan for its sea-going personnel.... The plan is not finished.”

And so on. Do you have anything finished at all over there?

[Commr George Da Pont]

We have completed a number of the elements. As I indicated in my opening statement, we have completed a strategic human resources plan that covers--

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Okay, so you have that completed.

I'm going to ask one final question, Mr. Chairman, because I know my time is very limited.

It seems to me the last time the coast guard commissioner was here he said that every ship that approaches our shores is required to radio ahead telling us that they're coming. Then of course, he went on to say that really these boats that bring in boatloads of illegal immigrants and boatloads of illegal drugs haven't been radioing ahead to say they are coming, and we have no real means of identifying that they're on their way.

Do we now have any means of identifying that boatloads of illegal immigrants and boatloads of illegal drugs are on their way, in case they don't tell us that they're coming?

[Commr George Da Pont]

We are actually working with the international community on introducing a long-range tracking system. I'll ask the deputy commissioner to provide you with a little detail on that.

[D/Commr Charles Gadula]

We have been working closely with most of the companies that are involved in the International Maritime Organization. It's an automated identification system that takes intelligence from overseas and allows us to monitor when these vessels come into Canadian waters. It will be completed and fully operational on both coasts and throughout the Great Lakes in 2011. That's in line with the international commitments.

There is a smaller identification system that has been put in place in the Seaway-Great Lakes area, but it's a local system and it's really for the safety side, not the safety and security phase.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you, Mr. Williams.

Monsieur Lussier, vous disposez de trois minutes.

[Marcel Lussier, Bloc, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

My first question is for Ms. d'Auray.

The coast guard document “Safety first, Service Always - Business Plan 2007-2010” makes no mention of an annual operating budget for each of the five major regions. Could you tell me what the annual operating or investment budget is for each of the major regions? Perhaps this document could be sent to the committee.

[Michelle d'Auray]

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I could probably give you some order of magnitude.