Public Accounts Committee on Nov. 5th, 2018

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Specifically in the case of motorcades, it seems to me there could be a template you could look at, and it starts with what you do about vehicles. You'd have thought this through ahead of time. It seems to me that you're starting all over again, reinventing the wheel each time, and I think we could do better. That's my point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Christopherson.

Now we'll go back to Mr. Kelly and Mr. Nicholson on a split.

Go ahead, Mr. Nicholson.

[Rob Nicholson]

I have just one question here, Mr. Chair.

The more people go on these websites to bid on these things, the better off we all are in the sense that it would perhaps drive prices.

What is being done to advertise that? I appreciate you have 100,000 people, but in a country of well over 30 million people.... We see quite a few government ads for different things. Do any of them ever mention that people might be interested in purchasing equipment from the government and might go on one of these websites?

[Nicholas Trudel]

We use social media. There are some tweets. There is some limited promotion of sales through government channels. We don't purchase advertising.

[Rob Nicholson]

Do you think it might not be a bad investment to increase that at some point?

[Nicholas Trudel]

Just recently we conducted public opinion research about both the user and the non-user community. It's been published. We're using it to inform decision-making. We haven't done it until now, and we would be very careful about using taxpayer funding or raising our commission rates to pay for advertising. We haven't completed the work yet to decide whether to do that.

[Rob Nicholson]

I received a postcard a few weeks ago about cannabis in this country, and that came from the Government of Canada. Revenue Canada sends out things on a regular basis. There are advertisements. It seems to me that even just a small advertisement to people might dramatically increase the number of people who go onto that site.

That's just a thought.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Nicholson.

Mr. Massé, you're next.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a question for the people from the Office of the Auditor General.

Further to your recommendations, various topics have been discussed at this meeting. We have talked about expanding the donation of assets or facilitating their transfer to other departments.

You have heard our reactions. Before the meeting is over, are there any aspects we have not raised that you think warrant special attention from our committee? Do you have any other recommendations?

[Martin Dompierre]

You have covered the topic by focusing more on the potential transfer of assets. The federal government often sells assets right now, whereas you have talked a lot about transferring assets today. The other aspect is the donation system, and I think that is included in our recommendations. I think the committee has covered the key aspects that we chose to report to Parliament.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Do you also share the view of some people that, given the results of the work begun by PSPC and other departments, Treasury Board should consider modernizing or updating its policy?

[Martin Dompierre]

I completely agree that that would move things forward and enable the departments to use other existing tools. It is a logical step in the right direction to achieving that purpose.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Perfect.

That's all, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Massé.

I don't see any other questions, so I will thank each one of you for being here. It's good to have so many departments here, and our AG's office as well.

In the course of this meeting, perhaps there were questions or requests that were given that we would encourage you to respond to by sending in answers, updated information, or anything that our committee could use as we write a report on this meeting today.

I mentioned in regard to getting feedback from you on the moratorium that we may end up going a different route whereby we simply draft a letter and send it to Treasury Board or send it to the different departments. We would then request you to come back after we did some thinking on how we wanted to word that.

Thank you for being here. We wish you all the best as you work toward giving good value to Canadian taxpayers for the goods and assets that we dispose of.

Committee members, I would ask you to stay. We're going suspend and go in camera, so I encourage our guests to leave as soon as possible. We have some committee business that we have to discuss. It shouldn't take more than five minutes.

[Proceedings continue in camera]