Public Accounts committee  My apologies. My Internet has briefly become unstable and I missed the question. If the member could please repeat the question, I'd very much appreciate that.

Public Accounts committee  The policies have been consistent for some period of time. The core question is the application of a different threshold. As I indicated in my opening remarks, we undertook a thorough review and did reach the conclusion that at this point spend remains the best and most reliable

Public Accounts committee  The remaining 20% is still subject to review. The originating departments are still required to meet professional standards and to make sure the advertising is non-partisan. It's just that the amounts are relatively small, and consistent with a risk-based approach and making sure

Public Accounts committee  To try to be helpful here, Ad Standards is contracted by the Government of Canada, but Ad Standards is intended to be an independent review. They implement the review criteria, but they're intended to implement that in an independent way, and the individuals are not directly, of

Public Accounts committee  I think you raise an extraordinarily good point, and that is that to some extent the issue of partisanship in advertising may be in the eye of the beholder. That is, I think, why there is a third party independent approach against established criteria, and we ask the contractor t

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. As you indicated, I am joined today by Kelly Acton, who serves as the assistant secretary for strategic communications and ministerial affairs at Treasury Board Secretariat. After my brief remarks, Ms. Acton and I will look forward to answering any que

Government Operations committee  I'll just supplement that very briefly from a Treasury Board official's perspective. There are a number of different aspects of privacy, but I'll speak to two of them very briefly. The first is technical. Technical requirements, technical standards and technical risks around pri

Government Operations committee  Having said that, we will communicate with the Public Service Commission to make sure they are aware of the sensitivity. If we can provide appropriate information to this committee, as my colleague Mr. Purves suggested, we will absolutely undertake to do so.

Government Operations committee  I couldn't agree more. The reason we were unable to answer the earlier question fully is that this is an area where we are not seized with the details. Because of that, we can only take the question as notice and come back, but we obviously take the question seriously. In the int

Government Operations committee  The allocations for the next generation are for up to $16 million over two years. We're working our way through the balance of that funding. At this point, we have not required additional or extra funds to be expended on the next-generation project. As the minister indicated, th

Government Operations committee  That is correct. The majority of the $16 million that is being spent up to this point has been spent working our way through an initial exploration process to determine the types of software vendors who would be available to meet our needs. It will be both a needs definition proc

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much. It is a very important question, and we do take it very seriously. There are two impediments to providing the information to you at this point and the reason why we will provide the information to you in writing. The first is that while the agreements are t

Government Operations committee  —of all governments to hold off final communication, including pricing, until the agreements are fully ratified. That's with those with whom we have reached tentative agreements. Secondly, we remain in negotiation and, frankly, that information may have commercial value relative

Government Operations committee  No, the back of this number calculation—and I'll ask Mr. Purves to add to this as well—may not be fully accurate, because there will be a combination of costs to the government, including backfill days—

Government Operations committee  —and a variety of other things. Obviously that information is of direct proprietorial and commercial value to the Government of Canada as it continues to negotiate with bargaining agents. Also, the agreements themselves are not yet concluded and, while recommended by the bargaini