Public Accounts committee  That is a really interesting and great question. Fundamentally, what public servants need to do, and this goes back to my answer to Mr. Lawrence, is spend a lot more time understanding what the impacts of our programs are—where they have an impact on Canadians regionally, diverse

Public Accounts committee  I appreciate the question, and I do think it's fundamental. I have an ongoing and strong interest in the accountability file, so I don't want to dodge the question. I can speak only to the period in which I have had personal experience, which is after 2018, and my experience i

Public Accounts committee  It's not just a question of modernizing the civil service. Fundamentally, we need to start from what it is from a citizen perspective—“How do we design from a citizen perspective?”—and make sure that we always include that lens. From a policy, implementation, impact and digital o

Public Accounts committee  I'll take an initial stab at this and then perhaps turn to Roch or Janine if they have additional pieces. A year ago, the idea that we would not be in the office was just an impossibility. Frankly, 10 or 11 months ago it was still pretty frightening. We were scrambling to press

Public Accounts committee  It's an absolutely great question, and I think it's just a massive obsession. Unfortunately, I almost always start off with a negative. My colleagues are tired and annoyed by this, but we do have to acknowledge that we're in a pretty big hole from the lack of some fundamental i

Public Accounts committee  I apologize for the general nature of this answer. I've been part of the Government of Canada since 2018 and obviously joined at a point after much of the original concern with Phoenix had been realized. The questions have, I believe, been asked historically, and I believe that t

Public Accounts committee  I very much appreciate the question; it's an absolutely critical question. I do not believe that was the finding of the Auditor General in the February 2021 report, but that's a different dialogue, respectfully. There is a change of policy. There is a change of culture. We are in

Public Accounts committee  Very briefly, the original Phoenix was done with incredibly ridiculous and catastrophic tunnel vision. People were making decisions without information, without sharing the information. We've made sure that NextGen is far more broadly based, infinitely more exclusive, done on a

Public Accounts committee  We'll have different answers to the question. It's much appreciated. The actual performance of Phoenix is getting better, but we are of course on our way to replace the system, which is the ultimate objective. The backlog and other aspects have been improving gradually over time.

Public Accounts committee  No, and I don't want to give you an assurance that there is no more bad management. The policies were put in place on April 1, 2020. They extend the ability the deputies already have, and the accountability in these instances rests with the deputy heads of the institutions. They

Public Accounts committee  Thank you so much. I'm joined by Roch Huppé, who serves as the comptroller general of Canada. I aim to be as brief and direct as I can. This is an important dialogue. I want to start off by emphasizing that the Treasury Board Secretariat accepts the Auditor General's spring 20

Public Accounts committee  It's still, of course, subject to exactly the same policies and all of the same professionalism and other elements. Obviously, under extreme scenarios, any of these things could become compromised, and that's where the complaints mechanism, but also the general guardianship of t

Public Accounts committee  No, not at all. It's to make sure we continue to capture 80% of all of the advertising being done. To the extent there are risks, and we appreciate there are risks, and whether or not they're realized, whether or not there's evidence or concerns about partisan advertising, it's a

Public Accounts committee  Thank you.

Public Accounts committee  The question broke up a little bit for me, but I believe either Ms. Acton or Mr. Blais can answer.