Government Operations committee  I'm happy to answer. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear earlier. In the case of the WE contribution agreement, it did not come to the Treasury Board because it was determined that the program was within the minister's authorities. Mr. McCauley, in the guidelines you're referring to, th

Government Operations committee  I was saying that it's within the minister's authority to implement the program and sign the contribution agreement, so the department would have had to do the official languages assessment. Your question is best directed at them with regard to what official languages assessment

Government Operations committee  I have no line of sight on what the department did.

Government Operations committee  Minister Chagger's officials contacted the Treasury Board Secretariat to determine if the program could be delivered within the existing authorities. We determined that that was in fact the case, so the initiative never came forward to the Treasury Board. It would be up to the de

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Mr. Chair. In the case of the WE contribution, ESDC officials did consult TBS to determine whether the Canada student grant program could be delivered under the minister's existing authorities, or whether a Treasury Board authori

Government Operations committee  Yes, I am. Thank you very much for the question. With respect to emergency contracting, there are already controls within the policy. First of all, the emergency limits are temporary for COVID-19, so there is a time limit to these exceptional emergency contracts. Also, reporti

Government Operations committee  Yes. For any contract using emergency authorities, the same rules apply regardless.

Government Operations committee  I think you'd have to ask the PSPC about the specifics of that contract, but the emergency limits refer not to the duration of the contract but to the value of the contract.

Government Operations committee  Again, the specifics of each contract are something you'd have to ask the contracting organization, which is likely PSPC in this case.

Government Operations committee  Advance payments are allowed within financial management policy, generally, subject to certain conditions.

Government Operations committee  I am not an expert in the financial rules around them, but in general, advance payments are for receipt of goods or services within the upcoming year. They can't cross fiscal years.

Government Operations committee  It has to be within the value of the contract. I can check with my financial management colleagues and get back to you on those specifics.

Government Operations committee  I can speak from a Treasury Board perspective. We have 12 departments involved in a collective staffing process to recruit procurement officials, including from outside the federal government.

Government Operations committee  I'll speak first and give the Treasury Board's perspective. As I indicated in my opening remarks, one of the key things we're doing is looking at the rules. Those rules, from a TB contracting policy perspective, are focused on departments, but maybe a lot of those rules don't n

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.