:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Andrew Treusch. I'm the associate deputy minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada.
[Translation]
I am pleased to be here along with my colleagues, Alex Lakroni, who is our Chief Financial Officer, John McBain, Assistant Deputy Minister of our Real Property Branch, and Pablo Sobrino, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of our Acquisitions Branch.
[English]
I'm here today to speak about our 2011-12 departmental performance report, our 2012-13 supplementary estimates (B), as well as our achievements under the deficit reduction action plan.
I understand the committee is interested in the fact that we are not requesting any additional funds through supplementary estimates (B). Departments table supplementary estimates primarily when approvals occur after main estimates for items such as new funding for existing programs, items announced in the federal budget, or reallocations of funds between appropriations. Like other government departments, PWGSC is not obligated to ask for funding through supplementary estimates if we have sufficient cash on hand through existing appropriations to cover any additional program requirements. This principle is at the heart of responsible spending and sound financial management. I want to emphasize, however, that the supplementary estimates are a normal part of the government's budgetary procedures and will remain a part of our department's fiscal cycle.
[Translation]
PWGSC is the government's principal common service organization, providing government departments and agencies with services in support of their programs.
[English]
Our main services include procurement, office accommodation and facilities, architectural and engineering services, construction, maintenance and repair of public works and federal real property, translation and related services, and pay and pension.
[Translation]
The serves as the Receiver General for Canada and has authority for the administration of pay services for federal employees. The minister is also responsible for maintaining the Public Accounts of Canada.
PWGSC's vision is to excel in government operations, by delivering high-quality services and programs that meet the needs of federal organizations while ensuring sound stewardship on behalf of Canadians.
[English]
We play an important role in the daily operation of the Government of Canada as its principal banker/accountant, central purchasing agent, linguistic authority, and real property manager. We manage a diverse real estate portfolio that accommodates some 269,000 federal employees in 1,819 locations across Canada, including these Parliament buildings; we purchase more than $16 billion of goods and services annually, representing some 54,000 contracts through government procurement; we prepare the public accounts; and we manage a cashflow of more than $2 trillion each year.
[Translation]
We translate more than 1 million pages of text on behalf of federal organizations, and provide translation and interpretation services for Parliament and its committees.
[English]
For 2012-13, our total gross budget, as approved by Parliament, is $6.1 billion. Our department is heavily revenue-dependent, with 56% of our expenditures, or $3.4 billion, covered by revenues from client government departments. This, therefore, leaves us with a net appropriation of $2.7 billion.
Our operating vote totals $3.3 billion, and this has two basic components. First, $0.9 billion is required to deliver on our core programs, such as central purchasing and banking, public accounts, payroll and pension services, and our own internal services. The second part, $2.4 billion, is required to pay for rent, fit-up, and utilities for government-wide accommodation, Receiver General functions, like payment and related overhead, and translation services to Parliament.
We also deliver a number of other services to federal departments, such as real property project management and translation, and these, again, would be on a full cost-recovery basis.
Finally, PWGSC has a capital vote of some $518 million, primarily to invest in Government of Canada buildings and infrastructure.
[Translation]
Last year PWGSC made significant progress on several major initiatives. I will outline a few of these.
The 2011 announcement of the shipyards selected under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy was an important milestone. We are proud to have delivered a fair, open, competitive and transparent approach for the largest procurement arrangement in Canadian history.
I am particularly pleased to note that in recognition of our work on the NSPS, the department received a 2012 Public Service Award of Excellence, as well as the 2012 bronze award for Innovative Management from the Institute of Public Administration.
[English]
The Public Policy Forum declared this strategy the 2011 top public policy story of the year. I know my colleague, Tom Ring, appeared before this committee in recent days to discuss this work.
Our Canadian innovation commercialization program has helped Canadian businesses demonstrate their innovative products and services while also meeting the needs identified by federal departments and agencies. We are continuing on the renovations of the Parliament Buildings, with 15 projects delivered on time and on budget. Planning for the rehabilitation of the buildings in the parliamentary precinct is proceeding, including work on the East Block, the West Block, and the Sir John A. Macdonald Building.
My colleague, Pierre-Marc Mongeau, will appear before you on December 13 to provide you with an update on these projects and associated costs.
[Translation]
We are working to bring 21st-century business solutions to government, by modernizing pay and pension services. More specifically, we are consolidating pay administration services for public servants into a single pay centre in Miramichi, New Brunswick. This initiative consists of replacing the government's outdated 40-year-old pay system with more efficient and modern technology and will generate millions in annual savings.
[English]
In addition, we have put in place a department-wide client service strategy aimed at bringing a more consistent and disciplined approach to the provision of our wide range of services to client departments, big and small, across the government. As part of our commitment to transparency, I am pleased to say that these service standards are now publicly available through our website.
I would note that PWGSC has good results in the annual management accountability framework, or MAF. These are the assessments carried out by the Treasury Board. MAF is a key performance management tool that the federal government uses to support the management accountability of deputy heads and to improve management practices across government. Last year, of the eleven areas for which Public Works was assessed, we scored either acceptable, “green”, or strong, “blue”, in ten areas, with one area where an opportunity for improvement was noted.
Our most recent departmental performance report contains 27 performance indicator targets. Here I am excluding the three that are developed by the procurement ombudsman. We substantially met or exceeded 24 of them.
We are pleased to have accomplished this while building the reputation as a department to recruit and retain the workforce of the future. Our department was named one of the national capital region's top employers and one of Canada's best diversity employers in a single year.
Last night we took the Chair's Cup in the Government of Canada's annual charitable campaign, for our contribution of over $1 million.
Voices: Hear, hear!
Mr. Andrew Treusch: Thank you.
[Translation]
PWGSC remains focused on fiscal prudence and ensuring that taxpayers' dollars are used as efficiently and effectively as possible.
[English]
In Budget 2012, PWGSC committed to $177.6 million of reductions over seven years as part of the deficit reduction action plan. Most of the savings are from the modernization of government workspaces.
[Translation]
PWGSC has shown leadership in the area of sound financial management and has instilled a culture of budget management excellence throughout the various program branches. The department's forecasting accuracy between December 31 and year-end for the last two years exceeded 99%. This demonstrates a level of financial management discipline that goes beyond government and industry standards.
[English]
In addition, we have strengthened our oversight role in all financial matters. Rigorous practices have yielded economies and resulted in moneys returned to the fiscal framework. We have in place a number of strong policies, processes, and procedures to support fair, open, and transparent business practices. This is a continuous approach to ensure the highest level of accountability in the Government of Canada's procurement and real property systems.
We introduced in July an integrity framework to ensure we are doing business with organizations and individuals that respect the law. This is another step to increase our due diligence, reduce the opportunity for fraud, and better manage the reputational risk to the procurement and real property system.
[Translation]
Internally, we have a strong audit and evaluation function, and we launched a PWGSC Code of Conduct in April 2012, concurrent with the release of the new Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector.
[English]
I'm pleased to say that we have accomplished all of this while providing comprehensive support to our employees as we reduce the size of our workforce. Our department totalled around 12,200 employees in 2011-12. We experience considerable mobility, including some 500 of our employees who retire each year. Overall some 95% of the employees affected by the first and second year of the strategic review have secured alternate employment or have left the public service, typically for retirement. For the employees affected by the April 2012 implementation of the deficit reduction action plan, some 88% have already been placed or have left the public service, typically for retirement.
[Translation]
We have accomplished this largely through the efforts of our departmental priority placement process.
[English]
Thank you for your attention. My colleagues and I would be very happy to answer your questions.
:
I appreciate the question and this important opportunity to clarify something on which I can see there's some confusion in certain quarters.
It's very important that positions are eliminated under these restraint exercises. Under strategic review, and most recently under the deficit reduction action plan, we have eliminated positions. In the most recent exercise, 163 positions were eliminated.
In terms of the people occupying those positions, these people are called “affected” in the human resource jargon of government. We put in place a job placement team for these people, whereby we have offered them every possible opportunity to find gainful employment within our department, within the government, or, of course, if they're at retirement, to take advantage of retirement. They have other opportunities as well. I'm only highlighting the key ones.
Our management team focuses on these affected people every week. Every week we review the people we've placed and the people we've not placed, until we've worked it through.
Turning back to the strategic review and the statistics I mentioned, 95% of the people affected in those positions that were eliminated have been successfully placed: the majority within the department, many across other government departments, and some have taken retirement. I spoke about, and you quite rightly referenced, attrition. As our workforce turns over, as people go into retirement, it opens up 400 or 500 jobs each year, so we certainly have flexibility to move people in a way that respects the requirements of the position.
In the most recent round, which is the DRAP, we're getting close to having placed 90% of the 163 people who were in those affected positions.
:
Thank you very much for the question.
Going back, I think we've always been a service organization. It's in our parliamentary mandate. It's in the legislation of Parliament. That's what we're constituted...along with a recognition of the fact that now a majority of our revenue comes from clients.
We live in a marketplace, sir. If we're not able to provide good service to client departments, then we will not be able to maintain that service line. We need to focus on client service. The client service strategy was the umbrella to bring this together for the department.
The department has, as I mentioned, with the very diversity of our service lines—some 30 different service lines—a vast regional network. We needed to have a very coherent and strong service strategy that affected the whole department, across all the service lines, with all our undertakings. The service strategy was the way of doing that.
I would say that at the heart of it is setting rigorous service standards, and these, sir, are standards that can be measured. It's just pass-fail—you met it or you didn't—and not those fine words. We now use that to report on the results and then recalibrate.
We did miss some of our standards, but that's the way it's designed to work. That's a warning sign to us that we need to improve, we need to up our game, and that's the way we're driving improvement there.
It has also established that the most important thing between a service provider and a client is the relationship. It's engaging the client, understanding their needs, and the client believing you're doing everything possible to help them meet their business needs. The client service strategy is built around that.
We are a leader in this kind of strategy for a department of our type. I would give recognition to Service Canada as being the first entity in the government that obviously had service delivery to citizens at their centre, but many departments have service strategies relevant to their mandate.
Hello, everyone.
I am pleased to meet with the members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Today, I am accompanied by Wilma Vreeswijk, Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Business Transformation and Renewal Secretariat, by Ian McCowan, Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Communications and Consultations, and by Marc Belisle, Executive Director of the Finance and Corporate Planning Division for the Privy Council Office.
My introductory comments pertain to the 2012-13 supplementary estimates (B) for the Privy Council Office, or PCO. In these estimates, PCO is seeking $4.8 million for various items, which I will explain without further preamble.
[English]
An amount of $1.3 million is for the government-wide coordination of the perimeter security and economic competitiveness action plan. On February 4, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama issued a declaration on a shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness. The declaration establishes a new long-term partnership that will accelerate the legitimate flow of people and goods between both countries, while strengthening security and economic competitiveness.
On December 7, 2011, both leaders agreed to implement two action plans designed to speed up legitimate trade and travel, improve security in North America, and align regulatory approaches between the two countries. Following this announcement, a small team was established within PCO to oversee Canada's implementation of the border action plan and to ensure close, regular, and routine communication, coordination, and consultation with the White House national security staff who oversee the U.S. implementation. Funding of $1.3 million is sought for the operation of the border implementation team within PCO.
The amount of $2.1 million is to support the ongoing work of the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council, the RCC, which was created following the agreement between the leaders on December 7, 2011. The RCC is an initiative that brings together senior representatives of the governments of Canada and the United States under a two-year mandate to increase regulatory cooperation between the two countries. The RCC joint action plan is an important step in the ongoing process of regulatory cooperation between Canada and the United States. Joint action plan work is being undertaken in the areas of agriculture and food, transportation, health and personal care products, workplace chemicals, the environment, and two cross-sectoral areas—nanotechnology and the view from the small business perspective.
PCO's work in this area is new since we last appeared before the committee. Originally, the Canadian secretariat to the RCC was hosted by the Treasury Board Secretariat, TBS. TBS had received funding in the amount of $3.3 million—and that excludes employee benefit plans and Public Works and Government Services accommodation costs—in fiscal year 2012-13 for the Canadian RCC secretariat. The Prime Minister announced in July 2012 that the secretariat was transferred to PCO effective August 1, 2012, under the leadership of David Moloney, who is also directing the border implementation team of which I just spoke. Therefore, TBS transferred the remaining 2012-13 funding in the amount of $2.1 million to allow PCO to house the operation of the RCC secretariat. As a result, this is not new money and there is no new impact on the fiscal framework for these funds.
The amount of $1.4 million is to support operational activities at the Business Transformation and Renewal Secretariat, BTRS, in supporting the priorities and planning subcommittee on government administration as it pursues government-wide opportunities for improved services and operational efficiencies. To this end, the new secretariat is working with departments and agencies to find whole-of-government solutions that improve the effectiveness and efficiencies of the government. It is also continuing the work of public service renewal and supporting the clerk as the head of the public service.
Funding included in these estimates is not a new draw on the fiscal framework, since funds are transferred from existing reference levels of 25 departments in 2012-13 and from 27 departments for future years. The remaining funding for the operation of the new secretariat will come from the former public service renewal secretariat, which had been housed within PCO's senior personnel group, but which has been moved to the new secretariat.
[Translation]
A total of $1.3 million is to continue to support the coordination of government-wide communications for Canada's Economic Action Plan. The action plan, or EAP, was first introduced in response to an unprecedented global recession. Given global economic uncertainty, the government is continuing to implement the economic action plan to help ensure a strong, stable economy for all Canadians.
Budget 2012 emphasized the priority placed on the economy in the overall government agenda, with the focus on jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. The EAP Web site was redesigned to focus on jobs and growth, and to ensure that Canadians are aware of EAP initiatives and how these initiatives apply to them.
The EAP team within PCO continues to support the coordination of a government-wide communications strategy for the EAP. The strategy serves to provide Canadians with access to evergreen information on more than 275 federal programs, services and initiatives announced in federal budgets, from a single Web portal rather than the individual Web sites of almost 40 departments and agencies.
On a day-to-day basis, the team is responsible for ensuring the EAP Web site is as evergreen as possible, using social media to highlight initiatives of interest to Canadians. This requires active, regular contact with departments and agencies to ensure projects are added to the EAP project map, initiatives and priorities are up to date, and job- and growth-related news releases are posted on the site.
[English]
The amount of $0.3 million is for the completion of the activities of the commission of inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. The commission generated a surplus of $1.6 million in 2011-12, which is mostly explained by the extensions granted to the commissioner to submit his final report from June 30, 2012, to the end of October 2012. As you may recall, PCO sought an amount of $1.3 million in the 2012-13 supplementary estimates (A), which was a re-profile of a proportion of the commission's 2011-12 surplus to the current fiscal year.
However, since then, the commissioner extended the contracts for council and legal research assistants and increased their hours as a result of the scale of the task of writing the report. In late April, additional activities resulted from one of the participants requesting that the hearings be reopened to consider alleged evidence of disease in store-bought farmed salmon. Furthermore, the commission needed to review Bill C-38 for implications on the commission's work. The funding sought in these estimates, $0.3 million, is also re-profiled for the remaining balance of the commission's 2011-12 surplus to the current fiscal year. On October 31, 2012, the report was officially released to the public, and the commission is in the process of winding down its office. It will be officially wound down by December 31, 2012.
The amount of $0.1 million is transferred from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, DFAIT, related to the Canada-Australia exchange program. For 2012-13, PCO had transferred funds to DFAIT for a new two-year assignment, which will now not be necessary as the program is under review and is expected to be reconfigured to have shorter assignments. Therefore, DFAIT is returning the funds for the portion of the year for which there will be no new departmental staff at missions abroad.
These increases are partially offset by $1.3 million in savings, as announced in Budget 2012. To achieve the ongoing savings, PCO will change the way we work in some significant ways, some of which I've highlighted more specifically for you in previous appearances. The federal-provincial territorial functions will be further integrated within PCO, and a new secretariat has been established. This will allow us to minimize overlap and duplication between elements of intergovernmental affairs and the other PCO secretariats.
The cabinet system is being streamlined. We are taking measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making that will result in a reduced workload. One example of this is the new format for memoranda to cabinet. The government communications function is being modernized and streamlined, including a new approach to media monitoring and analysis. The corporate services branch is reviewing its business practices to optimize efficiencies, and all other branches are also finding ways to modernize their business processes and to achieve administrative efficiencies to meet savings targets.
In addition to the reductions announced in Budget 2012, this fiscal year, $0.5 million in savings has been further identified in the day-to-day operations of the Prime Minister's office and is being returned to the fiscal framework.
In closing, I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to inform you of the ongoing initiatives in the PCO's 2012-13 supplementary estimates (B). We would be pleased to respond to your questions.
:
As you may know, the Privy Council Office published its planned savings under Budget 2012 by its five program activities on our website recently.
Because we're a smaller department, we have fewer subactivities than other departments to support the core mandate. It's actually easier for us than for some other departments to break that down along the subactivity level. But I can do that. Let me take you through that for over the next three years.
We have five subactivities. The first one, the Prime Minister's and portfolio ministers' support and advice, is the largest category; it has five subactivities. The first one is issues, policy, machinery, and appointments. This year, in 2012, we will save $164,000. Next year that ramps up to $461,000, and then in 2014-15 and thereafter it's $923,000.
The second subactivity is international affairs and national security. This year we will save $246,000. Next year that will ramp up to $632,000, and then in 2014-15 and thereafter it's $1.069 million.
In intergovernmental affairs we are not booking any savings for this year; they start next year. That's $326,000, and then it ramps up for the third year and thereafter at $977,000.
The fourth subactivity in this category is legislation, parliamentary issues, and democratic reform. There are no savings booked for this year, but they begin in the next fiscal year at $54,000 and ramp up to $162,000 ongoing.
The fifth subactivity is the Prime Minister's and portfolio ministers' offices. No savings are booked for this year or for the next fiscal year. They begin in 2014-15 and ongoing at $416,000.
Let me turn next to the second activity level, which is cabinet and cabinet committees' advice and support. That has two subactivity levels. The first is operation of cabinet committees. This year we've booked $86,000, and it ramps up significantly next year to $845,000, and then finishing out at $911,000 ongoing.
For PCO's work and integration across the federal government, which is the second subactivity in this category, this year we will save $103,000, and next year we will save $309,000. Then in 2014-15 it will be $744,000 ongoing.