Thank you, Chair, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to say before giving my official remarks this morning that I am accustomed to sitting beside the late Michael Ferguson. Through you, Chair, could I extend our sympathy to Mr. Ferguson's family, but also to his colleagues and to members of this committee who worked so closely with the late Auditor General?
At Global Affairs Canada, serving Canada and Canadians abroad is our mandate. To deliver on this mandate we regard our responsibility for the protection of our staff, visitors and assets at Canada's international mission network as our key priority.
To this end, we continually review our security posture, procedures and systems to ensure they are robust and effective, and that they respond to the latest developments in the security context. This review process involves not only the physical security measures that have been assessed in the OAG audit, but also our operational security procedures and our security intelligence information. Collectively, these three security pillars work together to create layers of protection required for staff, visitors, information and physical assets. We believe that no one pillar can be viewed in isolation, and in many contexts specific elements, for example deploying guards, can be strengthened to compensate and provide mitigation for another area that may not be as strong. This interlinked approach is consistent with that taken by other foreign ministries.
Global Affairs Canada welcomes the Auditor General's report on the physical security pillar, and as Mr. Berthelette has said, we have accepted all of the recommendations. These recommendations are broadly aligned with those made in a recent 2018 internal audit conducted by the department under its current risk-based audit plan. The internal audit made five recommendations, which were tabled before our departmental audit committee in March of last year.
We are particularly pleased that the Office of the Auditor General relied on internal audit results to inform its observations, findings and recommendations. As members of the committee know, that does not always happen. ln particular, the Auditor General relied on the internal audit work conducted at four of our missions abroad and then conducted its own independent work at two more missions. We appreciate the collaboration and welcome the consistency of the findings.
Last year the department began to implement the recommendations made in the internal audit and has since deepened its action in the process of implementing the Auditor General's recommendations. The action plan in response to both audits is largely being addressed through the $1.8 billion in funding—that's over a 10-year period—the department received in the 2017 fall economic statement as a part of the duty of care package to improve security at missions abroad.
To ensure that these investments are effectively prioritized, tracked and implemented, Global Affairs has established a new global security framework. The framework explicitly integrates risk management principles into security policy development and decision-making and enables risk-based priority setting and resource allocation. The framework also provides the flexibility to adapt more quickly to the changing international security environment and to address future security needs as they emerge.
ln addition, security assessments, which include both threat assessments and vulnerability assessments, have transitioned from a one-size-fits-all cyclical approach to a risk-based approach that prioritizes more frequent assessments of our highest risk environments. This change has also been supported by more regular and proactive communications and linkages with mission security teams on the ground. For example, part of the duty-of-care investments has been used to acquire and implement an enhanced security information management system that is being used to document and track security requirements by missions to ensure that they're effectively monitored and efficiently addressed.
As well, in line with the audit observations related to strengthening governance and clarifying roles and responsibilities, we have strengthened and will continue to strengthen our internal governance to better coordinate decision-making and enhance the consistency and effective delivery of physical security projects at our missions abroad.
More specifically, decision-making for the allocation of resources to all major capital projects has been streamlined with senior level oversight by an ADM level committee. The committee meets monthly and includes the departmental security officer as a key member, which is in line with one of the audit recommendations.
The DSO's membership in the committee reflects the fact that many of our real property projects include physical security aspects. The committee is critical to ensuring strengthened project management for real property projects and for improving their timely delivery. As well, project delivery is being supported now by a recently created project management office. The office is responsible for maintaining quality assurance, the timeliness of project delivery, and monitoring and reporting on results.
The AG's report also highlighted the need for the department to initiate discussions with other government departments and to adopt best practices. In this respect, we continue to learn from our federal colleagues as well as with respected project management divisions of our foreign counterparts worldwide. These lessons will also contribute to, and benefit from, the Government of Canada's project management community of practice.
While the new governance structure is strengthening project management oversight, and best practices continue to be adopted, it is also true that physical security projects abroad are often undertaken in complex and, at times, unstable overseas environments where foreign laws, policies and other local conditions are outside our control. Events and changing circumstances can seriously impede project delivery and sometimes call for alternative mitigation. New tracking systems will monitor and flag those areas where such alternative mitigation is required.
Finally, an additional area covered by the Auditor General that wasn't included in the scope of our internal audit relates to security training.
In line with the recommendations, and as part of the duty of care investment package, we have work under way to strengthen our security competencies and capabilities.
The security training program has been revamped and will be broadened to improve the preparedness of departmental staff and locally engaged staff. A new mandatory five-day security training course has been added to the learning curriculum for staff heading to hazardous environments. Other courses have been updated to keep pace with evolving security needs. All training is designed to respond to operational needs and to mitigate risks abroad. A tracking solution has also been implemented to document and monitor training completed.
In closing, I would note that the physical security function examined in this audit comprises only one component within a broad range of measures that are employed in an integrated fashion to enhance the protection of our staff, visitors, information and assets abroad.
Additional security measures, such as security briefings, security equipment, real-time intelligence, personnel movement protocols and guard protection provide critical security enhancements and additional layers of mitigation.
In extreme cases, where risks are elevated, or where physical security measures require enhancements that can't be achieved, restrictive movement protocols and adjustments to mission posture are implemented to compensate, up to and including staff withdrawals and mission closure as required to ensure the safety and security of all our employees. This has recently been the case in our missions in Caracas, Venezuela and Havana, Cuba.
Unquestionably, the safety of our employees is our duty and my foremost preoccupation. The modernization of our approach to all the elements required to operate securely, effectively and safely abroad is well under way and the full implementation of the audit recommendations is being facilitated through the duty of care investments recently announced.
We're already seeing the real impact of these efforts. The Auditor General's support for this direction is both valued and encouraging.
I will be assisted by my colleagues. Dan runs our international platform, and Heather is specifically charged with our consular program, as well as our security operations and emergency management. Heather and I were before the committee recently.
Thank you, Chair.
