Government Operations committee  The refocusing of government spending, the $500 million in savings for the fiscal year that is ending this year, has $150 million coming from travel services and a reduction in travel expenditures. The remainder, $350 million, is expected to come from a reduction in consulting se

Government Operations committee  When it comes to management in the public service, some of you may know that there are executive-class executives in the executive group. There are five levels, from EX-01 to EX-05, and in addition to that there are deputy ministers, including associate deputy ministers. It's not

Government Operations committee  We don't have the same role. I don't have the same role as the Auditor General, so I don't always need to have the same level of documentation as the AG. In general, I have found that the information that we have needed has been provided by government departments. As I said, we

Government Operations committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. We are pleased to be here to discuss our report on the supplementary estimates (C) 2023-24, which was published on February 22, 2024. With me today are our lead analyst

Government Operations committee  If it's the desire of the committee, through a motion, I'd be happy to do that.

Government Operations committee  If you're looking at jurisdictions where it's easier than in Canada to reconcile the budget and the estimates process, I think Australia is a good example, where they have an integrated finance and Treasury Board equivalent. It's one department, so it facilitates the construction

Government Operations committee  It's not something we have developed. We know, by talking to certain senior public servants in specific areas—notably IT—that the use of consultants is much more expensive than doing the same work in-house with public servants. In that case, the issue is the availability of the

Government Operations committee  In IT, it certainly would be the case, because we hear from senior public servants that, when they have to go through consultancies, it costs significantly more than if they were to do it in-house with public servants. The issue is that they can't find the bodies to do the job in

Government Operations committee  It's not an industry with which I'm familiar, so I could not comment on that specific aspect.

Government Operations committee  There are other budgets for training in the public service. Each department has an envelope for employee training. It falls under operating expenses, personnel expenses or the purchase of goods and services. They buy training from other suppliers. The School of Public Service al

Government Operations committee  We'd definitely have to ask each and every organization what they spend on employee training. We'd also have to separate training and language training, which is a big part of the training budget for many organizations.

Government Operations committee  Yes. If memory serves me well, there was sufficient funding for infrastructure for waste water and water, but insufficient funding to ensure the continuous operation of water and waste-water treatment plants in first nations communities.

Government Operations committee  Your math seems about right if you look at $904 million, which is the cost we estimate for an extension of the CEBA loan repayment period. That seems to be, roughly speaking, the right proportion of the overall spending on professional and special services. That seems to be, roug

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure what the commissions themselves represent as part of the overall spending on professional and special services. We haven't looked at that specific component as part of the overall spending in that category.

Government Operations committee  I have no knowledge of the first nations infrastructure gap—no knowledge of a quantifiable gap. We have not looked at that specific issue ourselves. However, we did look at the water and waste-water issue a couple of years ago. We found there was no gap in the capital spending it