Government Operations committee  As to the specific contract and capacity that is being contracted for, I'm afraid I would not be able to speak to an individual department's requirement, but, as I indicated, each department is responsible for determining that reasonable efforts have been undertaken to ensure that what they are contracting out for cannot be undertaken by the public service.

Government Operations committee  Actually, the client could be any of our government department clients, including Shared Services.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. At PSPC, as a common service provider we are responsible for managing the procurement processes on behalf of our client departments. They are responsible for establishing the requirements of the individual procurement. They tend to do so for a variety of reasons, such as, in particular, when specialized skill sets are being sought to support a particular project or initiative, when surge capacity is required, when we need independent external advice or when we are lacking the expertise within an individual department.

Government Operations committee  For that particular question, I'm afraid I do not have that information immediately at hand for IT services. Of course, there is a range of services that we procure at PSPC. I would have to come back to the committee in writing with that particular piece of information.

Government Operations committee  I'm afraid I do not actually have that number immediately at hand, but I would be very happy to provide that. In terms of the 5% target that has been established by the government, this was put in place as a policy of government in April, so each individual department is responsible for reporting its progress against that particular target.

Government Operations committee  Perhaps I'll start, and then my colleagues, if they wish, can add on. I'm not aware that we track in that manner, Mr. Chair, but we do have a process where our technical authorities, which would be our client departments, are responsible for the business cases and the cost estimating that is undertaken, which is consistent with the Treasury Board directives and policies.

Government Operations committee  I am not aware that we would track it, certainly as PSPC, as a common service provider. This would be something that an individual department would be responsible for, in terms of owning the requirements and the estimates. I'm just not able to speak to that more broadly. Emilio might be able to speak to it from a TBS policy perspective, because as I indicated, the cost estimations are in line with the directive.

Government Operations committee  Thanks very much for the question, Mr. Chair. I'm afraid I'm not able to speak to the specifics of that particular contract. It is possible that it might be within the authorities of a particular department. As the common service provider, we're responsible for the procurements that exceed an individual department's own authorities.

Government Operations committee  Again, thanks very much for the question. In terms of speaking to any particular trend, I'm not in a position to speak to a particular trend. Again, as the common service provider, we are responsible for managing the procurement processes associated with the requirements of our particular departments.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Chair. I can speak to this from the perspective of the role of the common service provider as PSPC, where we support other government departments in their work when they require outsourcing in order to achieve certain types of work. For instance, if they are looking for particular specialized skills, as well as in relation to special—

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Chair. In that particular instance, it would be important for me to outline that we have policies in place to mitigate against the instances of what would be called an “employer-employee relationship”. We have particular policies in place to ensure that when we put contracts in place and bring in outsourced resources, we're doing so for a specific task or deliverable or a specific solution.

Government Operations committee  —ensure that we mitigate and assess risks.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Chair. As I indicated, we have the policy and procedures in place to mitigate against the risks of such an employee-employer relationship. I have my colleague from the Treasury Board Secretariat, which would be the owner of the policy for the Government of Canada.

Government Operations committee  Thanks very much for the question, Mr. Chair. As was alluded to in our opening remarks, there are a variety of reasons why we outsource specific tasks, whether it's for specialized skills or a surge capacity or other elements that are lacking in our in-house expertise—

Government Operations committee  I'm afraid I don't have the specific line item that is being referred to here, so I would have to look at that particular information. As I said, when we outsource to a consultant company for specific work, that is generally in line with that rationale. Again, as a common service provider, we do this on behalf of other government departments and our clients, who are the holders of the technical requirements.