Thank you, Chair.
Certainly, we want to start this conciliatorily and we want to move forward in a collaborative fashion, which I know this government has set out to do and as the Prime Minister has given you the mandate to do.
Chair, I do not want to draw attention to your absence, but I'm so sorry you couldn't be at the conference in Regina. It was absolutely outstanding in terms of the camaraderie and the lessons that we learned about best practices from across the country.
As a committee, we definitely came out of the conference with a renewed sense of collaboration and wanting to do what is in the interest of the Canadian people. Obviously, given that we're all from different political parties, all of us will approach this with a different lens in terms of our values, our principles, the positions that we come from and what we think is most valuable for the average Canadian citizen we hope to serve through this committee.
You have asked for our preferences for studies going forward. As the Auditor General has said herself, there is no shortage of topics to choose from. The reports run the gamut, and every single report, as we learned in Regina, is something of significant consideration when she and her team decide to execute it. Both in the decision and in the completion of the report, these are not picked without due consideration.
With that, Mr. Chair, we are very interested in Report 3, which was just released in June, about current and future use of office space. With a projected deficit of probably $84 billion, even though it currently sits at $61.9 billion, this government and this country need revenue right now. In the report, it was determined that there was going to be savings of $3.9 billion over 10 years, and that's really a drop in the bucket in terms of what we need.
One finding that stands out to me in particular is that the revenues from sold assets aren't even currently documented. To me, it's astounding that we're not even keeping track of what we are disposing of from a balance book perspective. This pairs very nicely with the housing initiative of the government. There is a lot to learn both in terms of cost savings and efficient use of assets, and it also, as I said, goes hand in hand with the housing strategy of the government.
The second one that we're interested in is the Auditor General's 2024 Report 5 about McKinsey, and the broader study of professional services. I'm specifically pointing the study on professional services. Again, we have had trouble finding value for money, time and time again.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer, the Auditor General and the procurement ombud have stated over and over again that there is a lack of oversight and there is a lack of follow-through in terms of the rules, the regulations, their application and the value for money.
Another theme at the time this report was undertaken was the actors involved. This, of course, was under the previous Trudeau administration, but there was concern about the implication of McKinsey and key players like Dominic Barton and their influence on the government throughout all ministries and departments. Given the current Prime Minister's past positions, in addition to the conflicts of interest that have been reported, we must always keep our guard up about these things.
The third one, I'm sure will come as no surprise, is GC Strategies. The AG's report shows more of the same; the Liberal government still needs to tighten up its procurement. We learned from the Auditor General that in her samples, 21% of the samples lack security clearances.
In 33% of contracts examined, federal organizations could not show that contract resources had the experience and qualifications needed to complete the work. In 58% of the non-competitive contracts examined, federal organizations failed to assess whether there would be benefits to calling for bids. Only 54% of contracts examined were situations where the federal departments could prove that their deliverables were even received. So we have a long way to go.
The final piece in regard to this report is that we never determined who chose GC Strategies. We never got to the bottom of that.
With that, I'll lay out our choices again: “Report 3: Current and Future Use of Federal Office Space”; professional services, highlighting McKinsey; and number three, from June of 2025, Report 4, which is on GC Strategies.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.