Public Accounts committee  Yes, I am, Mr. Chair.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a couple of points here. Non-Public Funds personnel do play a critical role in supporting our military families. They are not public servants. That bargaining process—

Public Accounts committee  Who pays them? That is Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services. It's a group outside the pure National Defence family, so they're not public servants.

Public Accounts committee  I certainly am involved, because those employees do play a critical role in services to our military members, and many—

Public Accounts committee  I am not the one who is offering or deciding what gets offered in terms of wages.

Public Accounts committee  I am aware, Mr. Chair, that there was a new offer put on the table this week and I was hoping that they were back at the table.

Public Accounts committee  At the end of the day, the executive of Morale and Welfare Services Non-Public Funds makes that offer.

Public Accounts committee  They are probably in touch with Treasury Board in terms of consistency, but they basically are doing their own bargaining, and Non-Public Funds is a not-for-profit entity.

Public Accounts committee  I certainly care about the service they provide and I am also concerned about some of the things that have happened on the picket line. You mentioned security. We do want to make sure that the interactions are peaceful and respect collective bargaining and the right to strike a

Public Accounts committee  Sure. It is led by PSPC. That data analytics piece is critical. They've been at it for four years or so. As procurement documents become digitized and submitted online as opposed to on paper, PSPC is maintaining a database through which you can do some analytics and look for cros

Public Accounts committee  Okay.

Public Accounts committee  It's clear that the people who did the actual work are not the two owners of GC Strategies. We checked. Furthermore, some people do not want to respond to government calls for tender. They prefer to use a company like GC Strategies to go through the process, and we cannot force t

Public Accounts committee  I agree with the fact that there is better value when we do not use subcontractors. At the end of the day, when you look at who has the contracts and the contractual arrangements, they are companies like Dalian, Coradix, GC Strategies and others. If individuals have not applied

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure I would say that's fair, Mr. Chair. The requirement to obtain and maintain a security clearance remains. It's not that once you get security clearance, you are never checked up on again. There is a periodic renewal, and if there's information that comes to anyone's a

Public Accounts committee  Chair, I'll mention a couple of things. One is that yes, it's clear in the letter of offer that conflicts should be disclosed, and you have 60 days to do so. I think there are various times—once a year—when employees are reminded of their obligations and asked to redisclose. I