Judy Foote

[Public Services and Procurement, February 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to having a translation bureau that is productive and that produces quality. We are committed to making sure we have the employees we need to carry out the work expected of them.

We are also committed as a party to official bilingualism. We are taking extraordinary measures to make sure that happens with this government, including putting in a different chief executive officer, a quality officer, and we are going to hire more employees.

We are going to do what should have been done years ago. We are going to fix the wrongs of the past with respect to official bilingualism.

[Canada Post, February 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, we are continuing with the promise we made, and that was to stop the installation of roadside mailboxes and to consult with Canadians from coast to coast to coast to get their views on the type of Canada Post we need to have, one that is sustainable and delivers for Canadians. We are doing just that. We now have the two reports needed that we now—

[Canada Post, February 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, contrary to my colleague's comments, we are following through on a promise we made during the election to stop installing community mailboxes—

[Public Services and Procurement, February 8th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, we are working very hard to fix the Phoenix pay system.

The previous government would know that in 2015, there was $78 million paid out in overpayments, so while this is not an ongoing acceptable practice, we are working hard to resolve it under the Phoenix pay system. First, our priority is to make sure that employees who work get paid for the work performed. We are also making sure we have a system in place so people can make their payments back, in terms of overpayments, in a way that does not cause hardship for those employees.

[Public Services and Procurement, February 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome my colleague's question. Resolving the ongoing service pay problems remains a priority for our government. That is why we have taken so many additional measures to respond in a quick manner. The reality is, we do have a number of outstanding issues. We are working very hard. We are working with our employees and we are working with the unions to try to find a speedy resolution, but we have encountered some complex cases. We are now going to shift to focusing on those priority cases to get them resolved as quickly as possible.

[Canada Post, January 31st, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hard-working member for Mississauga East—Cooksville for the question. Our government suspended the conversion of community mailboxes and undertook a two-phase review of Canada Post. In December, I received the report on Canada Post from the standing committee and I thank the members of that committee for their hard work consulting Canadians from coast to coast to coast. I am reviewing the report and in the spring will announce a new plan to meet the needs of Canadians.

[Public Services and Procurement, January 31st, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, from our perspective, the ongoing problems with respect to Phoenix are totally unacceptable. That is why we are putting so many extra measures in place to deal with the problem. We are determined to fix this problem, and we will. We are working with the unions, we are working with the employees, and we are taking every measure we possibly can to get the system fixed. We are also making sure that employees who are impacted by this can access emergency pay.

We are doing everything we can. It is totally unacceptable that employees are impacted by this, but we are going to fix the system.

[National Defence, January 31st, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are in discussions with the government of the United States as well as with Boeing. We want to get the best possible price we can.

To negotiate in public would be totally irresponsible, but we will make sure that what we get will be an investment for Canadians from an economic perspective as well as in terms of what our men and women in uniform need to do the job expected of them.

[National Defence, January 31st, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to ensuring that our men and women in uniform have the best aircraft they can possibly have to do the work expected of them.

We are in negotiations with the government of the United States and with Boeing. We are looking to get the best deal we possibly can, looking at price, looking at capability, looking at economic benefits, and we are going to do just that for this interim measure.

We are looking at the Super Hornet aircraft, but we will also be looking at a long-term procurement strategy to make sure that our men and women have the best possible—

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 30th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, as of November 10, 2016, the supplementary estimates (B) have had not been approved by Parliament.

Should they be approved by Parliament as tabled, PSPC plans to allocate this funding (of $47.6 million) in the following way: $5.7 million for additional support provided by IBM, which includes 24-7 troubleshooting support and refinements to processes and functionality.; $22.2 million for satellite offices in various locations, including Gatineau, Montreal, Shawinigan, and Winnipeg, as well as the call centres in Toronto and Ottawa.; $14.6 million for additional resources to manage our complaints centre, provide training and support to departments, and provide other support to ensure that system maintenance is performed with minimal disruption and that systems interacting with Phoenix are running as they should; and . $4.2 million as contingency to address unforeseen issues as they arise.

This is also subject to receiving the necessary spending authorities from Treasury Board.