Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to talk about the legislation presently before the House and to look at the amalgamation of different government agencies into consolidated departments, particularly this one of public works and government services. The amalgamation of most of the federal government's common services into one portfolio is a sound step toward improved efficiency and better service delivery of government programs and services.
The first and most obvious opportunity is the capacity of a centralized body to reduce wasteful duplication with consequent savings to the taxpayers. This is already apparent within the Department of Public Works and Government Services. It will become even more so over the next four years as the overall staff requirements are reduced by close to 30 per cent.
This consolidation of operations will bring annual savings of hundreds of millions of dollars and make a real contribution to streamlining government operations and contributing to deficit reduction.
Cost effectiveness can only be one of the reasons why amalgamation of the government's common services makes good sense. It also provides a single focal point to the scores of government departments and agencies that depend on public works and government service for services. It creates an environment in which Public Works and Government Services Canada is better able to understand the whole range of its clients' needs and deal with them on a comprehensive basis. Similarly it provides a single operational point of contact for the tens of thousands of companies and individuals that do business with government every year.
By standardizing policies and procedures and by developing more streamline procurement systems, Public Works and Government Services Canada can make it more fair, more simple and less costly for these people to do business with the government. Finally, the consolidation of our common services creates a really impressive body of specialized expertise on a wide variety of matters relating to government services and government administration.
One of these centres of expertise that has come into the department through the amalgamation is the government's translation bureau. Few people are fully aware of the wide range of services and enormous volume of output that this organization provides to Parliament and to government on a continuing basis. With a staff of some 1,200 employees the translation bureau looks after translation and interpretation services for Parliament and government departments, agencies and commissions, as well as acts as the prime authority for the standardized terminology throughout government.
Besides its basic responsibilities relating to Canada's two official languages, the bureau provides translation services in more that 150 languages as well as interpretation services for some 40 languages and dialects including sign language. The translation bureau is also an important user of services provided by the private sector in this field, issuing in a typical year more than 8,000 contracts for outside work. On average the bureau translates over 300 million words annually. To give some idea of the scope of this accomplishment, it represents the contents of about 4,000 books each of 250 pages in length. If you have heard my French, Mr. Speaker, you would realize how important good translation is.
The bureau also translates more than 100,000 weather bulletins a year through its Météo system, a computer assisted translation system. It provides about 20,000 person days of interpretive services. On top of all this the bureau responds to an estimated 150,000 telephone inquiries each year from client departments, suppliers and the general public seeking information regarding correct terminology.
The move of the translation bureau under the umbrella of Public Works and Government Services Canada was and is a logical and sensible move. The bureau provides an important common service to departments and agencies and to the public. It does extensive procurement for services with the private
sector. In other words, it shares the same characteristics as the other common service elements of the department and will benefit from being integrated with them.
Another of the important but sometimes overlooked common services that Public Works and Government Services provides for the government is that of the receiver general. This responsibility which was transferred to the minister from the former Department of Supply and Services Act covers a multitude of central financial and banking functions vital to government operations.
The duty of the receiver general includes the issuance of payments in response to inquiries, settlement and redemption of payments, performance of other treasury operations such as receipt processing, payment of banking fees relating to inflows and outflows from the consolidated revenue fund, maintaining the general ledger and preparing the financial statements of the government.
The receiver general is basically responsible for all public moneys received and disbursed by the government and for all balances held on deposit in the Bank of Canada and with other financial institutions. The receiver general must also maintain the official accounting records of the government and provide extensive analysis and reporting on the government's transactions and positions as may be required by Treasury Board, the finance department or others.
The volume of transactions generated by these responsibilities is enormous. Each year the receiver general must process some 30 million deposits and over 200 million payments. With this volume of work the function of the receiver general is one that can benefit from the application of new technologies now available to speed service, deliver and reduce the cost of delivery.
There has been considerable progress on this front. For example, of the 200 million payments made annually 30 per cent are now made by direct deposit and this percentage is growing each year. Over the last three years the department reports that some 133 million paper cheques have been converted to direct deposits. This conversion has resulted in initial savings of some $41 million in postage and banking fees, and annual savings are now in the order of $18 million. I am sure members of the Reform Party will be more than delighted at this progress and will be supportive of what we are doing here.
The cost cutting measures already taken by Public Works and Government Services Canada over the past year demonstrate the wisdom of consolidating the department's common services into a single department. The bill will give the department the legislative base it needs to continue to accelerate its efforts to provide better and less costly common services.