Government Operations committee  Good afternoon. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I am Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny and as of August, I have taken over as the new commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force. In this position, I am responsible for the RCAF's air and space force, in Canada and abroad. In addi

Government Operations committee  I will be able to get the menu for you. Something I want to add to that response is that one of the challenges we have with global catering right now, specifically for airlines, is that we have very limited choices as to who we can cater with. As you've heard, the locations we'

Government Operations committee  I thank the member for his question. The way we select the menu is that we go to the catering company. To answer a little bit your earlier question, what we look at is effectively chicken, beef and fish, so that is what the catering company will give to us. We then take that men

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the member for his question. Typically, the crew will receive the same menu selection as the rest of the passengers on board. It's much easier, logistically, to coordinate, because there's often only one service provider. To be clear, the crew w

Government Operations committee  When we contract with a catering company, the additional fees that come along, beyond the cost of the food, are for handling and delivery, storage, cleaning and food waste management. Those are additional costs. When we work with a catering company to determine the menu selection

Government Operations committee  I would say it depends on the flight. In some cases, we have very little notice for planning these events, and the cost estimates are coming in just prior to the actual execution—sometimes as we're issuing the contract. When we have longer lead times, as with this particular flig

Government Operations committee  The reality is, the catering companies don't break that down for us. In fact, they don't necessarily break down the costs per menu, either. What we get is an overall cost. Some do provide more detail than others, but you don't get the actual cost breakdown of each of the things I

Government Operations committee  There is very little—actually no—negotiation in these cases, unfortunately, unless there is more than one caterer available to us, in which case we can then look to see which one is the best value for money, but, as described, the vast majority of them are single providers who th

Government Operations committee  This is something that we need to work on with GAC protocol, specifically, how we can further reduce costs as we move forward. There is opportunity to do that, but I'll defer to my colleague as to how the menu selection is determined. There are opportunities, I believe, to save m

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the member for her question. There are invoices that indicate the amount billed for food or other items, such as taxes, and that provide more detail, but other invoices are not at all detailed. I know that these flights cost a lot of money, fo

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. Over the years, we have changed the way we're ordering our catering services, specifically with the amount we order for the flights. Beyond working with Global Affairs Canada protocols to determine the type of menu selections—chick

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do not have a set budget for a specific flight. We are provided operations and maintenance funding throughout the year to cover VVIP travel, but we don't have funds specifically allocated for each flight.

Government Operations committee  Right now, this is coordinated between the flight steward lead on the particular flight and Global Affairs Canada protocol to determine the menus and to actually do the catering. We are absolutely committed to changing this to make sure it reflects the expectations of Canadians

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the savings that was identified was in terms of the contingency meals that are purchased for the flight, which are above and beyond the total number of people on a flight. Reducing that specifically is one of the savings that has been implemented. T

Government Operations committee  I'll get you what we have.