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Results: 46 - 60 of 393
Iain Stewart
View Iain Stewart Profile
Iain Stewart
2021-04-20 11:30
A lot of the information is gathered and made public by the provinces and territories themselves in their reporting. We do have data-sharing agreements and relationships. For instance, right now, during the vaccine rollout, they are providing us weekly updates on the coverage of the different populations that they are vaccinating and so on, but as you just said, quite insightfully, it is an area of federal-provincial jurisdiction, so these arrangements are arrived at collaboratively.
View Lloyd Longfield Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Lloyd Longfield Profile
2021-04-20 12:13
Thank you.
I know that you're also using other contracted labs, including a lab in Guelph, Ontario—which is my riding—so you're really building capacity at the time of a pandemic.
The test was going to happen in March 2020 that was scheduled from 2018, and now you're doing it in real time, so I'm actually going to add my compliments for the work that you're doing and for your answering the call and the challenge to stand up for Canadians.
However, yes, there are things that we need to improve.
I want to pivot over to the Auditor General, Madam Hogan. I'm concerned about paragraph 8.51 in your report, which says the following:
The Public Health Agency of Canada should, in collaboration with...provincial and territorial partners, finalize...annexes to the multi-lateral agreement to help ensure that it receives timely, complete, and accurate surveillance information from its partners. In addition, in collaboration with provinces and territories, the agency should set timelines for completing this agreement.
Another part of your report talks about incomplete information from provinces, which hindered the progress in interpretation of data by the Public Health Agency of Canada. I wonder about the work of the provincial auditors general in coordinating the next audits so that we can see what in their systems is working, what isn't working and how we could maybe collaborate on some of the data-sharing that's so critical. This would include data-sharing on vaccine rollout—which, as Mr. Stewart just said, is another responsibility—and the concern about not getting vaccines distributed properly throughout provinces and territories, which is within their mandate constitutionally to do. Could we look at that via an audit through the provincial organizations?
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-20 12:15
The member's questions are always very involved. Let me try to answer all of those items.
I'll start, maybe, with the health surveillance information. Definitely, we saw throughout the audit that there was some difficulty in obtaining timely and complete information. I think we all have to acknowledge that the pandemic complicates matters and that, at times, provincial organizations were likely responding and couldn't always provide the information in the needed way. However, that information was needed to help evolve and alter the response.
What we found is that in only about 10% of the cases were symptoms included on the forms at the early stages of the pandemic, which really makes it difficult to understand how a virus might be evolving and how a nationwide response should be formulated.
View Pierre Paul-Hus Profile
CPC (QC)
Thank you.
Ms. Hogan, on page 39 of your report, there is a nice chart that shows the checks you did on people who were required to self-isolate. It shows that 46% of them did not comply with the quarantine order. In that regard, I would like to know if you did the checks for people who were coming into Quebec.
A few weeks ago, the Quebec Department of Public Safety said it did not have information about passengers arriving in Montreal, particularly from Toronto, because there was no exchange of information between the Quebec and Canadian departments of public safety to allow for follow-up. In Quebec, the RCMP is not involved in any of this.
If I understood correctly, no one could do checks on all passengers arriving in Quebec.
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-20 12:46
The chart indicates that the Public Health Agency of Canada reported 40% of cases where individuals were at high risk of not following quarantine rules to law enforcement. I can't confirm whether we have done these audits for each province. Regardless, we found that only 40% of these cases were reported to law enforcement for follow-up.
View Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Profile
BQ (QC)
Let's talk about communication, since it's the foundation of how departments work. We know that there are sometimes a number of subgroups and employees. In May, after only a few months, we realized that people who were already receiving employment insurance benefits could obtain the Canada emergency response benefit.
What concrete steps could have been taken to consolidate the information?
In the end, the same job was done twice, and these people had already received benefits.
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-15 12:25
It's a tough question. The deputy ministers may want to comment if you would like to ask them the question afterwards.
The information could have been shared a little earlier. As Mr. Flack said, there were some issues with the technological systems, but as soon as the information could be shared, it was. However, there's also the issue of access to other programs managed by the same department. The Canada Revenue Agency manages several programs, so it's also necessary to share information among the different groups within the department. Our office often sees this issue in its audits, which means that better communication and information sharing are needed. Sometimes it's really about technology issues and not a lack of willingness on the part of individuals.
View Philip Lawrence Profile
CPC (ON)
I just want to assure Mr. Blois that if he deems coverage necessary, that's fine. However, on my honour as a member, I will not be calling a vote in the last session, nor will anyone from our party, in the true spirit of public accounts. He can leave and rest assured.
I want to go through a specific case because I think it's actually emblematic and symptomatic of a bunch of things that went wrong. All that being said, I want this to be based on my knowledge that civil servants worked extremely hard and that a lot of these people on this call worked around the clock to make this happen. However, I want to express the challenges faced by a constituent.
This constituent applied for the CERB because based on the communications, he thought, as many did, that he was eligible. It turned out, due to a technicality, that he wasn't eligible. His accountant actually informed him of that. It wasn't through audit or otherwise.
He went to the CRA website—he has it all documented—three separate times, and three separate times, the CRA website was down. He finally gave up and said, “I'm going to do my duty as a citizen and make sure this money gets back before the end of the year.“ He then went to the bank, where he was told, “Oh, yeah; you just pay that to ESDC.” He paid it to ESDC, and then he got a nasty letter from CRA saying he wasn't eligible to get this money, he hadn't paid it back, and he had to pay it back now. On top of that, they were taxing him on that money. He then contacted ESDC and said, “I want that money back, please. I told CRA I paid it, but it's at ESDC.”
ESDC has no idea. We're now in week eight of trying to get that money back. We've had no response. I've personally talked to two or three different civil servants. He has talked to about 15 different civil servants. He has called the CRA more times than you can imagine. He's been put on hold for hours and he's been hung up on multiple times.
I bring this to your attention because there are a number of challenges. At one point, the official laughed and said, “Oh, there are thousands of people with that problem.”
He's tried to do the right thing all the way along. He handed $14,000 to the government and it won't give it back to him. Could someone from either the CRA or ESDC comment on that, please?
Cliff C. Groen
View Cliff C. Groen Profile
Cliff C. Groen
2021-04-15 13:09
Thank you for the question. I'll go first, and maybe colleagues from CRA would follow
I very much regret to hear the challenges that your constituent has gone through. Certainly we try—and in the vast majority of situations are able—to provide very timely service to Canadians. That is what we are here for. I sincerely regret hearing in particular about your constituent. Perhaps through the committee you would be able to provide us with the specific name of that client. I can absolutely commit that we will follow up directly with him to try to address his situation as quickly as possible.
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-13 12:09
Madam Chair, I am pleased to be here to discuss our audit reports, which were tabled in the House of Commons on March 25. I am accompanied by Carol McCalla, Philippe Le Goff, Chantal Richard, Jo Ann Schwartz and Nicholas Swales, the principals who were responsible for the audits.
The reports presented were the first of many audits that my office will conduct on the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I also provided Parliament with our report on the Investing in Canada plan.
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic was an all-hands-on-deck emergency the world over. Governments had to mobilize quickly to respond to the public, health, social and economic effects of this pandemic. Canada was no exception.
While we found that the government was not as ready as it could have been for a pandemic of this magnitude, the public service mobilized, prioritized the needs of Canadians, and quickly delivered support and services. We did not observe the same service mindset and interdepartmental coordination in our audit of the investing in Canada plan, which I will turn to first.
The investing in Canada plan is important because the government is investing $188 billion to generate long-term economic growth, improve communities' resiliency, support the transition to a green economy, and improve social inclusion and socio-economic outcomes for all Canadians.
Infrastructure Canada is unable to present a full picture of results achieved and progress made under the investing in Canada plan. We found that the department's reporting excluded almost half of the government's investment because it did not capture more than $92 billion of funding that was committed before the plan's creation in 2016.
In addition, Infrastructure Canada's reporting captured only some programs each year, making it impossible to compare results year over year. The clarity of reporting was also impacted by inconsistent information received from federal partners in the plan. The absence of clear and complete reporting on the Investing in Canada plan makes it difficult for parliamentarians and Canadians to know whether progress is being made against the intended objectives.
The issues affecting the Investing in Canada plan are not new. We have seen similar problems in many past audits in areas that require cross-departmental or cross-jurisdictional collaboration, such as indigenous issues and climate change. This audit is yet another example of the need for the government to act on known issues—in this case, the need for broad collaboration and clear reporting on results for this large initiative.
In contrast, we observed nimbleness during our audits of the government's COVID-19 response.
I am going to turn first to the Canada emergency response benefit.
With this benefit, the government wanted to quickly deliver financial support to eligible individuals.
We found that the Department of Finance Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, and the Canada Revenue Agency rose to the challenge and quickly analyzed, designed and delivered the Canada emergency response benefit.
To simplify the process and get support to people quickly, Employment and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency took the approach of relying on personal attestations and automated prepayment controls to validate applicants' eligibility. Once the benefit was launched, they introduced additional prepayment controls to limit potential abuse.
With the decision to rely on personal attestations, host payment verification becomes very important. Employment and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency are working to start their post-payment verification efforts related to the Canada emergency response benefit later this year. Their work in this area will be the subject of a future audit.
I will turn now to the Canada emergency wage subsidy. We observed a similar focus on getting help out quickly, in this case to businesses. Once again, the Department of Finance Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency worked together within short time frames to support the development and implementation of the Canada emergency wage subsidy.
The design and rollout of the subsidy highlighted pre-existing weaknesses in the agency's systems, approaches and data. These weaknesses will need to be addressed to improve the robustness of Canada's tax system.
To prioritize issuing payments, the Canada Revenue Agency made decisions about the information it would ask for and the prepayment controls it would use.
For example, the agency decided that it would not ask for social insurance numbers, though this information could have helped prevent the doubling up of applications for financial support. This decision limited the agency's ability to perform prepayment validations, as did the absence of complete and up-to-date tax information that would have helped it efficiently assess applications.
I am going to now turn to our last audit, which focused on pandemic preparedness, surveillance and border control measures.
In this audit, we found that the Public Health Agency of Canada was not as well-prepared as it could have been to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not all emergency and response plans were up to date or tested, and data-sharing agreements with the provinces and territories were not finalized.
The Public Health Agency relied on a risk assessment tool that was untested and not designed to consider pandemic risk. The agency continued to assess the risk as low, despite growing numbers of COVID-19 cases in Canada and worldwide. In addition, the Global Public Health Intelligence Network did not issue an alert about the virus that would become known as causing COVID-19.
I am discouraged that the Public Health Agency of Canada did not address long-standing issues, some of which had been raised repeatedly for more than two decades. These issues negatively affected the sharing of surveillance data between the agency and the provinces and territories during the pandemic. While the agency took steps to address some of these problems during the pandemic, it has much more work to do on its data-sharing agreements and its information technology infrastructure to better support national disease surveillance in the future.
We also found that the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency implemented restrictions at the border as well as quarantine measures. They provided guidance and tools to inform travellers and essential workers coming into the country of public health requirements.
However, the Public Health Agency of Canada had not contemplated or planned for a quarantine on a nationwide scale, from the collection of travellers' information through to all enforcement activities, including following up on those identified to be at risk of non-compliance. As a result, the agency does not know if the majority of travellers properly quarantined.
These audits looked at programs that were rolled out in record time. Faced with a pandemic, the public service focused on the pressing outcome: helping Canadians.
In its first year, the pandemic has shown that when the public service must, the public service can. This crisis has highlighted the importance of dealing with known issues, whether it's agreeing on which organization has the lead; who will do what, and when; who will report what, and to whom; or replacing outdated systems or processes and addressing issues in data quality.
These are not problems that you want to have to deal with at the same time that you are focusing on helping people, because this is not an efficient way of working, nor is it a productive way to serve Canadians. Government organizations need to do collaboration better.
Madam Chair, this concludes my opening statement. We are now pleased to answer questions that you may have.
Thank you.
View Brian Masse Profile
NDP (ON)
View Brian Masse Profile
2021-04-08 15:51
I'm just looking for the status for us and the United States in sharing information related to privacy rights for the use of autonomous vehicles and trucks between Canada and the United States. For them to operate in both jurisdictions, we need to have comprehensive data and privacy management plans and also cost-sharing with regard to those plans. Otherwise, they'll be comprised and won't be able to work.
I'm just wondering if you can update us on what's going on with that. We want to do the same things with batteries, but if we don't do that with data management and autonomous vehicles, they'll become useless on each side of the border.
View Marc Garneau Profile
Lib. (QC)
I'm going to put on my old Transport hat, because that was very much something that I was engaged in with the Secretary of Transportation in the United States. Where we harmonize with respect to regulations, we were indeed talking about the whole concept of autonomous vehicles and the very critical issue of privacy rights because of the environment in which autonomous vehicles would be operating.
I can assure you that for both Canada and the United States, when we talk about autonomous vehicles, we're not just talking about regulations with respect to how they operate. Because of the nature of autonomous vehicles, we're both very sensitive to privacy rights. That is part of the discussion that my successor, Minister Alghabra, is currently engaged in with Secretary Buttigieg.
View Kerry-Lynne Findlay Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you.
The NFL's written submission to our committee detailed the importance of requiring official league data to protect consumers and ensure integrity in the sports betting marketplace. In your view, is this necessary? If it is, why?
Keith Wachtel
View Keith Wachtel Profile
Keith Wachtel
2021-03-23 11:22
We think that it's important for all sports books or anyone who is involved in the ecosystem to use the league's data. That is the verified data. I think it provides consumers with the feeling of authenticity and that it's backed by the property where the data's coming from.
We have noticed in the United States that all of the sports betting companies are securing that data directly from either the league or from third parties like Sportradar. They are happy to do so because they want the ability to provide the best information to the public in an authentic way.
We support it whether it is part of the regulations or not. We do believe that all the sports books will want to secure the league's data.
View Kerry-Lynne Findlay Profile
CPC (BC)
Without divulging specific parties or confidential negotiations, have you already been in some talks to license official league data in Canada?
Results: 46 - 60 of 393 | Page: 4 of 27

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