Government Operations Committee on May 29th, 2024

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

It is, Mr. Kusmierczyk.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I'm actually looking after the interpreters on this committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

If you're going to continue this, time will be taken away from you. I've made my ruling very clear.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Mr. Chair, if you won't look after it, I certainly will.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Mr. Kusmierczyk, please. I've stated before, and I've told one of your colleagues before this, that if there's an issue, they will advise the clerk the proper way. They will not advise you. They will not advise the other members. They will advise the clerk. I would you to please stop with such interruptions.

Mrs. Kusie—

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Can I respond? Can I respond at all here—ever?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Minister, I understand what you're saying.

Mrs. Kusie, if you would please allow a question and an answer, you have 40 seconds.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Can you tell Canadians today, clearly, as you promised them the last time we spoke in a committee environment, that you have recouped the $60-plus million—because, as the Auditor General indicated, it is a minimum of $60 million—for Canadians, as you promised you would?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Chair, there is an ongoing investigation. Any wrongdoing will be taken into account. I stand by my comments that the government will seek to recover taxpayers' money that was spent inappropriately.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

That's a no, Mr. Chair. That's clearly a no.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

We are waiting for the RCMP investigation to conclude.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

That's a no.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much, Minister—

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

That is not a no. We are waiting for the RCMP investigation to conclude, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you, Minister.

We will now go to Mr. Bains. I'm sure you'll have an opportunity to answer during Mr. Bains' time.

Go ahead, Mr. Bains.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I want to give the minister an opportunity to finish her answer.

I know that you were interrupted a number of times there. Feel free to please answer on the important work that you're doing.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much.

Yes, I was interrupted a number of times. I feel it was inappropriate, as well. I'm here to answer questions in good faith. I would appreciate being given the opportunity by colleagues across the House to provide the answers that I'm here to give.

There is an ongoing investigation by the RCMP. That investigation has not concluded. We as a government have stated that we will comply with the recommendations from the RCMP. We will also ensure that anybody who abused taxpayers' money will face consequences. The government will seek to recover taxpayers' money that was spent inappropriately. That is our commitment.

Certainly, at Treasury Board I take the purview and the prudent spending of our government extremely seriously, as do my colleagues at Treasury Board.

Thank you.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Thank you, Minister. I really appreciate the work you're doing. I'm very encouraged by the spending review you've administered. I look forward to the upcoming updates on this.

I'll go to my first question. The 2024-25 main estimates signal a $2.3-billion reallocation of funding in your refocusing government spending initiative. That's up from a $500-million reallocation in the previous fiscal year. What impact do these massive funding reallocations have on the delivery of important services that Canadians rely on?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Unlike the opposition, our goal is to ensure that vulnerable Canadians are able to have supports. In budget 2023, we made a commitment to refocus government spending to not only ensure prudent fiscal management of taxpayer dollars but also to be able to utilize that funding to provide supports for Canadians.

The main estimates reported on the planned reallocations of over $10.5 billion over the next three years, as a result of the refocusing government spending initiative, what was tabled in the main estimates at the end of February. I will say that the refocusing government spending initiative was one that all ministers participated in, looking at their portfolios to see how they could refocus both money spent on operating costs as well as grants and contributions towards the government's priorities.

The refocusing government spending initiative is an initiative that is a commitment to prudence while continuing to support Canadians by creating growth and opportunities for all. You saw that commitment in budget 2024 with supports for affordable housing, for a national school food program, for dental care and for additional child care through ECE supports. Those are the types of initiatives and social programs that we believe are important.

If the opposition cares about poverty, then I would think they would support initiatives like a national school food program, like the Canada child benefit, and like $10-a-day child care, which ensures that families have support to get by.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Thank you.

With respect to that, are there any negative impacts that Canadian taxpayers could face due to the refocused spending should parliamentarians choose to vote for or against these important main estimates?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

As I said, Mr. Chair, the refocused government spending initiative does not cut supports for Canadians. In fact, what it does is take a look across government at where spending might not be necessary, such as in the areas of executive travel and third party contracting, to say that money could be better spent and would gain greater utility when used for another purpose. That is the way we are using this exercise. The PBO, when commenting on the first phase of refocused government spending, opined that government services would not be cut as a result of those measures.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

I'm going to shift my focus a little bit, because I think the cybersecurity threat is real. I think we all know about the ever-evolving threat of cyber-attacks.

In fact, in my city of Richmond, B.C., London Drugs, which is headquartered there, was recently targeted by a major cyber-attack.

I wanted to ask about the cybersecurity strategy and how you're working to ensure that the Government of Canada's enterprise networks are safe.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

The area of cybersecurity is one that I take very seriously, especially given my time at the Department of National Defence, where I had oversight of the Communications Security Establishment.

Treasury Board has a leadership role in setting the direction for government IT modernization and driving momentum on the whole-of-government solution for cybersecurity.

Last week, I announced the first-ever cyber-strategy for the Government of Canada. Rather than having individual departments and ministries utilize their own cyber-strategies, we now have a whole-of-government approach that will be run out of Treasury Board and Shared Services Canada together with the CSE. We are implementing this—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry, Minister. We are out of time. Perhaps you can finish off in the next round or get back to us in writing.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much. Thank you for the questions.