44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 7, 2024 10:00AM
- May/7/24 10:03:25 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am speaking to the dissenting report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities' report, “Implications of Artificial Intelligence Technologies for the Canadian Labour Force”. This is on behalf of the Conservative Party of Canada. Through HUMA's study, witnesses testified to regulations about privacy concerning artificial intelligence, the poor state of Canadian productivity and innovation, how AI can be used by governments to boost efficiencies, and the need for consideration of artificial intelligence in international trade agreements.
While the report briefly mentions these points, it does not go sufficiently in depth about how the lack of action concerning these topics creates challenges to our ability to manage AI's impact on the Canadian workforce. Conservatives believe that greater emphasis should have been placed in the report on looking at AI for ways to improve efficiencies within the federal government.
Over the past nine years, the federal government has increased the use of outside consultants by $21.1 billion. Issues around mismanagement of procurement processes have come to light at other committees. Conservatives believe that the federal government must take seriously the needs of Canadians when delivering government services in a responsible, cost-effective and efficient way.
Finally, Conservatives believe there should have been far more emphasis placed in the report on the potential opportunity to improve Canada's productivity. This is due to the fact that the OECD, which is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, shows a direct link between a nation's productivity and quality of life. When compared to other OECD countries over the past nine years, the quality of life of Canadians has diminished, and Canada is on track to have the lowest productivity, or quality of life, of all OECD countries.
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- May/7/24 7:02:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it being May 7, I want to start by wishing my dear wife back home a happy anniversary. With five kids and one more on the way and through four election campaigns, it has been a wild 13 years. I am so grateful to her and to my whole family for supporting me in this important vocation. It involves far more sacrifice for them than it does for me.
The process was rigged. The arrive scam process was rigged in favour of well-connected insider companies. We know this because the procurement ombud's report identified the well-connected insiders at GC Strategies, the small two-person company that the government loved giving deals to, over and over again. GC Strategies, the small two-person company, was actually founded in the same year that the Prime Minister took office. Fancy that.
The company was founded the same year the Prime Minister took office, and it became a favoured go-to supplier for the government. A supplier of what? A supplier of nothing. This company did no work. It simply received contracts and subcontracted all of the work. If the government needed to pay someone to do nothing, GC Strategies was its go-to.
The process was rigged because GC Strategies sat down with folks inside of the government who were deciding the terms of critical contracts. GC Strategies said what the specifications of the contract and the terms of the contract should look like, and that advice was taken. GC Strategies then bid on the contract, which it had informed the development of, and, surprise, it got it. GC Strategies was able to sit down with those developing the contracting process, fix the process by saying exactly what the specifications of the contract could be and then, surprise, it got the deal.
I have continually asked the government why. Why did sketchy companies like GC Strategies develop this favoured stature within the NDP-Liberal government? Why did it continue to go to the same shady characters over and over again to give them these incredibly generous contracts?
On arrive scam alone, this glitchy app that did not work, that sent over 10,000 people into quarantine on an error, that had real horrifying impacts on the lives of Canadians, this company got, according to the Auditor General, almost $20 million for nothing. It simply got the work and then subcontracted all of it to other people. Now that is a glorious gig. It got millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars, from the NDP-Liberal government to do nothing. It had the process rigged in its favour when it was a two-person company working out of a basement.
I am trying to understand. There is this systematic rot in the procurement process. This arrive scam issue is just the tip of the iceberg. We keep hearing new reports about broken contracting, contracting across various departments that clearly did not follow the rules.
I want to ask the parliamentary secretary a question. Why did the government rig the process in favour of the shady characters at GC Strategies? Why did the government do it?
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- May/7/24 7:06:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am sure all gathered in the House this evening wish the hon. member a very happy 17th anniversary and all the best to his growing family.
Taxpayers' money needs to be treated with the utmost respect. Departments and agencies must follow contracting rules and handle all procurement processes in a fair, open and transparent manner and in accordance with all policies, regulations, guidelines and trade agreements. The gaps in management processes, roles and controls that the Auditor General of Canada and the procurement ombudsman have identified in the reports are unacceptable.
We welcome the recommendations made in these reports.
I want to remind the hon. member that the CBSA has already taken steps to strengthen its procurement activities and ensure proper oversight of these activities. The agency has established an executive procurement review committee, which is tasked with approving contracts and task authorizations. This is already providing additional oversight on all contracting activities, focusing on delivering value for money. Employees will be required to disclose interactions with potential vendors.
Furthermore, Public Services and Procurement Canada will continue to strengthen all aspects of the federal procurement system and will use the findings of the Auditor General's report to improve the way the Government of Canada does business with its suppliers.
The hon. member will certainly remember the unprecedented context in which the ArriveCAN application was created. After the pandemic was declared in March 2020, the app was developed and launched as quickly as possible by the CBSA at the request of the Public Health Agency of Canada. The data provided by ArriveCAN was essential for the Government of Canada to monitor, detect and identify new COVID-19 variants of concern and to respond as these variants evolved.
The CBSA worked as quickly as possible to replace a paper process that was not meeting public health needs. At the time, there were significant wait times at the border that disrupted the essential flow of people and goods.
I wish to point out to the hon. member the Auditor General's recognition in her report that the government improved the speed and quality of information collected at the border by using the ArriveCAN app rather than the paper form. We should not forget that this app helped ensure the continued flow of essential goods, including food and medical supplies, for all Canadians. The CBSA also played a key role in facilitating the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in this country.
The public health measures that were taken have supported Canadian businesses that depend on secure and timely cross-border shipments. They kept food and goods on store shelves and ensured our frontline workers were equipped with essential supplies, such as personal protective equipment.
I would like to emphasize the efforts of frontline border officers and all CBSA personnel, who diligently served and protected Canadian citizens during the pandemic and continue to do so every day in Canada and around the world.
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- May/7/24 7:10:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the fact is that my hon. friend has read his pre-prepared statement about government procurement policy, but he has not answered the basic question. The question is why the government rigged the process in favour of this shady two-person company that was working out of somebody's basement. How did this company, which was just founded in the same year the Prime Minister took office, manage to get so much money from the government?
If I started a company in my basement tomorrow with one other person, I suspect we would not be turning over tens of millions of dollars in government contracts, within a short space of time, for doing no work. It is pretty clear that there is some reason the government was constantly funnelling money to and through GC Strategies, and the process was, in fact, as we know, rigged in their favour.
As such, why did the government continuously funnel money to and through GC Strategies? Why did it do that?
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- May/7/24 7:11:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will reiterate that transparency and accountability are priorities for the government. We expect that procurement processes will be properly followed and that anyone accused of wrongdoing will face appropriate consequences. This has been and will always be the case.
On the gaps found by the Auditor General and the procurement ombudsperson in their reports, as I have said already, those findings are unacceptable, and we welcome the recommendations. The government is taking steps to ensure all government departments are better positioned to undertake projects of this nature in the future. Some of the recognitions outlined in the report have already been addressed. The president of the CBSA has implemented measures to strengthen and improve procurement processes and internal controls.
The government has full confidence that any investigation into wrongdoing allegations will be pursued with integrity and efficiency.
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