House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2000, with 56% of the vote.
Human Resources Development May 4th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, Deloitte & Touche was contracted to give us advice on the draft. They did that. We implemented their recommendations and the auditor general, having seen the final plan, endorsed it.
The other thing I would like to point out yet again is that on February 10 I presented that plan to the committee and I asked for committee members to make any further recommendations they would like to see in that action plan. I received no recommendations from that party.
Human Resources Development May 4th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is incorrect. The recommendations of Deloitte & Touche were incorporated.
What is interesting here is I recall that the hon. member, when asked by the media about the six point plan, said it is something that should have been implemented a long time ago. Does she think differently now?
Human Resources Development May 4th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member would take the time to visit some of the human resources development offices across this country to see the work that is being done on site, he would see that we have implemented changes. He would see that the men and women who are part of this very important department are working very hard to represent the interests of the Canadian public.
What we see on that side of the House is more misinformation. Clearly they are not interested at all—
Human Resources Development May 4th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, in the context of the work of my department in this undertaking it is absolutely clear that it has been made a priority of the senior management team.
The men and women of the Department of Human Resources Development are implementing this plan on a daily basis, working day and night to ensure that the contributions they make in the communities are good ones, to ensure that our accountability back to the taxpayer is clear.
If the hon. member opposite has recommendations to make, why have I received none to date?
Human Resources Development May 4th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, Deloitte & Touche said that individuals need to understand their responsibilities and expected timeframes. What did we do? Our final plan identifies senior managers as accountable for specific tasks and clearly states commitments and deadlines.
Deloitte & Touche said that the draft plan did not assign overall leadership and responsibility for implementing the plan, so we put in place a senior management team to lead the implementation. Deloitte & Touche recommended that we strengthen our information systems. In the final plan we will implement three new information systems, including a new financial tracking system.
We implemented the recommendations.
Human Resources Development May 4th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, let me clarify again that we implemented the recommendations of Deloitte & Touche.
From the point of view of the department, we have a plan that has been encouraged to be implemented by the auditor general and that is being done. On this side of the House we are prepared to take action. On that side of the House they want to stay stuck in the past.
Human Resources Development May 4th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, let us go through this again. From the point of view of the department, making sure that we had an effective action plan to implement was a priority. We drafted a strategy. We contracted with Deloitte & Touche and asked them for their advice. They provided it.
We implemented their recommendation. We provided it to the auditor general. I would remind the hon. member that he said “The action plan prepared by the department represents an exceptional response, I believe”.
Questions On The Order Paper May 3rd, 2000
(a) Steps the Government has taken since February 1999:
At the six countries social security meeting held in New Zealand in March 1999, the deputy minister of Human Resouces Development expressed Canada's serious concern about the issue of frozen British pensions to the permanent secretary of the United Kingdom department of social security.
In October 1999 and again in March 2000, the Minister of Foreign Affairs re-iterated Canada's position on the issue of frozen British pensions at meetings with the British minister responsible for North American and Caribbean relations.
On at least five occasions during 1998-1999, at meetings of the International Social Security Association, senior officials of Human Resources Development Canada re-emphasized the need to resolve the issue of frozen British pensions in discussions with the head of International and European Union relations of the United Kingdom department of social security.
(b) Status of challenge before the European Court of Human Rights:
Officials of Human Resources Development, with the assistance of the Department of Justice, have given extensive study to a possible legal challenge to the British legislation on frozen pensions before the European Court of Human Rights. There are complex legal issues involved and Canada has no precedents for such an action. A decision is expected soon.
Human Resources Development May 3rd, 2000
Mr. Speaker, maybe if the hon. member would quit reading the draft and read what is actually the final product, he would see that we did indeed address and assign authorities and responsibilities.
The department, at the most senior levels, has engaged in this process. Senior executives know exactly what their role and responsibility is. The men and women of the department know where they need to make changes and they are doing so.
Again I point out that on this side of the House we know how important these grants and contributions are and that is why we are making every effort to improve—
Human Resources Development May 3rd, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the leadership that my department has shown in this regard is absolutely clear. First and foremost, it was an internal audit that identified the problems.
Second, it was because of myself and the department that the audit became public.
Third, a plan of action has been written up and is now being implemented. The men and women across this country, even in the riding of the hon. member, are working day and night to implement these changes.
From our point of view, the grants and contributions of this government and the contributions it makes to improving the lives of Canadians is worth every effort that we are making and we will continue to make.