Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a) of the question, the new anticipated delivery date for the first Arctic and offshore patrol ship by Irving Shipbuilding is early 2020. With regard to part (b), shipbuilding is complex, especially for a first-of-class vessel, and schedules can be challenging to predict.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, in response to (a), as of December 5, 2019, it is estimated that 98,249 individuals potentially owe the government money as a result of an overpayment. As the Phoenix pay system cannot segregate true overpayments from administrative overpayments, it is not possible to accurately provide specific figures for true overpayment, which represent money owed to the government.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, the department’s standard media process does not include contacting nor sharing media requests with companies. That said, Public Services and Procurement Canada, PSPC, is committed to providing Canadians, including media, with timely, factual information about our work, and in doing so, PSPC may, from time to time, verify information with companies when working on inquiries involving work contracted to them.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), the current ongoing construction taking place on the lawn of Parliament Hill between Centre Block and the Centennial Flame is related to the Centre Block rehabilitation program, which includes excavating the northern portion of the lawn in order to construct phase II of the Visitor Welcome Centre.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), government contracts are posted on the Buy and Sell website at https://buyandsell.gc.ca/. This includes contracts under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the NSS, with the exception of those subject to the provisions of the national security exemption, which are not posted publicly.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, in response to (a), the Government of Canada has developed a formal risk management plan for the national shipbuilding strategy, NSS. The plan is informed by international best practices and helps to predict, identify and manage the key risks facing the NSS. Key risks include: timely analysis and decision-making, mitigated through a senior-level governance structure; human resources capacity, mitigated through hiring more procurement officers, training government analysts on estimating cost, and supporting for training and apprenticeship programs; and public communications, mitigated through annual reports, announcements, technical briefings, and other opportunities to provide Canadians with timely information on the NSS.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the government party, I sincerely welcome our colleagues from the Bloc Québécois and of course their leader. We thank him for his support for the government's agenda and his vote in favour of the Speech from the Throne. We appreciate his reaching out to the government and the Liberal Party in a spirit of collaboration.

Violence Against Women  Mr. Speaker, on this National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women, I would like to recognize the work being done in the Outaouais by wonderful and dedicated organizations. This includes, for example, the work done by the Maison Unies-vers-femmes, a women's shelter in Gatineau, and the essential services the staff has been providing to women victims of domestic violence and their children since 1979.

Gatineau  Mr. Speaker, so many great things have happened in Gatineau. Here are some numbers. Over the past four years, we increased support for seniors, restored the retirement age to 65, created 624 student summer jobs and supported 2,178 affordable housing units. Every month, 11,230 families receive $550 tax-free per child thanks to the Canada child benefit.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, this is National Public Service Week, and I want to express our gratitude to our impressive public service. Everyone in the House is committed to bringing the Phoenix transaction backlog down to zero. We will not do as the Conservatives did and lay off 700 public servants just to post some phony savings to create a phony balanced budget.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, as has been pointed out in this chamber many times, the member and his colleagues ran on a solemn vow to balance the budget at all costs and made some extravagant promises. We knew the NDP would not keep that commitment. We know that every time members of New Democratic Party stand in the House and say that we are not going far enough on this or we are not spending enough on that, they know very well that they would not have been able to do as much as this government has done, whether it is in child poverty, the environment, economic development, or on giving the middle class a tax break.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, of course our hearts go out to all the public servants who are still having problems with the Phoenix pay system. I can assure my hon. colleague that we have rebuilt capacity within government by hiring about 1,000 compensation advisors. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I am rather shocked and surprised. The member may be surprised to realize that we have one thing in common: We both come from an area that graduates a heck of a lot of students. There are two universities, maybe a college, in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Certainly in the Ottawa-Gatineau area there are l'UQO, Ottawa University, Saint Paul and Carleton, of course.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, for those watching, I would like to say that we just heard our colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound say farewell. I would certainly like to join the other members of the House in thanking him for his service to Canadians. Today, I am speaking to my constituents in Gatineau, a number of whom have been through quite a lot in recent years, including tornadoes and flooding.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, unlike the Harper Conservatives, we opened up the shipbuilding process. We gave Davie some very lucrative contracts, including an icebreaker refit and several vessel repairs. Now, we are looking to involve a third shipyard and give it the opportunity to participate in this historic shipbuilding strategy.