Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, I am pleased to present my report, which was tabled in the House of Commons last Tuesday.
I am accompanied by Assistant Auditors General Jerome Berthelette and Wendy Loschiuk, as well as by Glenn Wheeler, the principal responsible for the audit of transfer payments to the aerospace sector.
The report contains the results of that audit. In the first chapter, we looked at how Public Works and Government Services Canada, Health Canada, and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada plan their use of professional service contractors. We found that the departments plan their needs for employees and contractors separately. This hampers their ability to assess whether they have the best mix of employees and contractors to meet their objectives.
Departments need to consider the full range of options that will enable them to most effectively deliver programs and services to Canadians.
I'll move now to our report about grant and contribution program reforms. In May 2008 the government announced an action plan to reform the administration of grant and contribution programs and to streamline the administrative and reporting burden on recipients. Our audit looked at whether the government has adequately implemented this action plan. We found that the government has in fact focused its actions where they're most important. Treasury Board Secretariat has provided leadership and guidance to federal organizations to make the necessary changes, and these organizations have acted on most of their obligations. The government has made good progress in implementing the 2008 action plan. Now it needs to determine if the actions taken have made a difference for recipients.
Let's turn now to our audit about what government is doing to help protect Canadian infrastructure against cyber threats. Critical infrastructure includes the power grid, banking and telephone systems, and the government's own information systems. The government has a leadership role to play in ensuring that information about threats is shared, and it has to improve the way it does this. This is important because officials are concerned that cyber threats are evolving faster than the government can keep pace.
In 2001 the government committed to building partnerships with the owners and operators of critical infrastructure systems to share information and provide technical support. We found that 11 years later, those arrangements are not fully operational. Similarly, the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre has only been operating eight hours a day, five days a week. It's not the 24/7 information hub it was designed to be in 2005. Furthermore, it's not being kept abreast of cyber security incidents in a timely manner.
Since 2010, the government has made some progress in protecting its own systems and building partnerships to secure Canada's infrastructure. The government must now ensure that the sector networks are in place and working with the Cyber Incident Response Centre.
We are also reporting on how National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada manage selected programs, benefits, and services to support eligible ill and injured Canadian Forces members and veterans in the transition to civilian life.
There are many support programs, benefits, and services in place to help ill and injured members of the military make the transition to civilian life. However, we found that understanding and accessing these supports is often complex, lengthy, and challenging. The lack of clear information about programs and services, the complexity of eligibility criteria, and the dependence on paper-based systems are some of the difficulties for both clients and departmental staff.
We also found inconsistencies in how individual cases are managed and problem-sharing information between the two departments. As a result, forces members and veterans did not always receive services and benefits in a timely manner or at all.
National Defence and Veterans Affairs recognize they need to work together on solutions. I'm pleased they've accepted our recommendations, including to streamline their processes to make programs more accessible for ill and injured forces members and veterans.
The next report also concerns National Defence—specifically, how the department is managing its real property at 21 main bases across Canada. The Canadian Forces rely on real property such as buildings, airfields and training facilities to carry out missions. These assets are valued at $22 billion. I am concerned that the department is not yet adequately maintaining and renewing its assets.
We found several weaknesses in the department’s management practices. For example, the approval process for construction projects is cumbersome and slow. It takes an average of 6 years to approve projects over $5 million.
We also found that National Defence is behind in its spending targets for maintenance and repair, and recapitalization. As such, weaknesses in National Defence’s management of real property could jeopardize the Canadian Forces’ ability to carry out its missions. National Defence recognizes it needs to improve and change its approach to managing real property.
We also looked at two programs that provide repayable assistance to support industrial research and development in Canada’s aerospace sector. Since 2007, Industry Canada has authorized almost $1.2 billion in assistance to 23 Canadian aerospace companies through the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative and the Bombardier CSeries Program. Industry Canada has done a good job of managing most of the administrative aspects of the two transfer payment programs. However, we found that the department has been slow to measure progress against program objectives and report results publicly. Repayable support to the aerospace sector represents a significant investment on behalf of Canadians. Industry Canada has a responsibility to ensure that funding contributes to meeting the government’s objectives in this area.
Finally, in our audit focusing on long-term fiscal sustainability, we found that Finance Canada analyzes and considers the long-term fiscal impact of the policy measures it recommends. However, at the time of the audit, the government had yet to make public its reports on long-term fiscal sustainability. Analysis that provides a long-term budgetary perspective would help parliamentarians and Canadians better understand the fiscal challenges facing the federal government.
The department has accepted our recommendations. Following the tabling of my report in Parliament, the department issued its first long-term analysis for the federal government. We also recommended that the department publish, from time to time, an analysis for all governments combined—federal, provincial, and territorial—to give a total Canadian perspective.
Mr. Chair, that concludes my opening statement.
We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.