Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Trois-Rivières.

This is a great opportunity to introduce myself. I have heard a lot about the old government. I am new here. Members will have a great opportunity to meet me later. I believe my colleague next to me is the new member for Carleton, a Liberal who won the riding after 20 years.

The Government of Canada accepts the findings of the latest Auditor General of Canada's report related to the procurement of professional services. We take this report, and all subsequent recommendations, seriously and remain fully committed to fairness, openness and transparency in federal procurement practices. Simply put, we are committed to protecting the integrity of procurement.

While that commitment remains, our new government will do things differently. Elected with a mandate to deliver change, we will take a new approach to governing, one that includes a laser focus on fiscal discipline. We are well aware of the past issues around the procurement of professional services, in particular, those that were uncovered through previous audits and investigations. Again, in this most recent report. The Auditor General has been clear that the right procurement rules are in place, but federal organizations have not consistently followed procurement policies when awarding and managing contracts. This, we wholeheartedly agree, is unacceptable.

While the Auditor General did not make any new recommendations for the government, the report reinforces the previously identified issues in procurement practices, underlining the importance of clearly understanding and correctly applying existing policies. I can say that the government has already acted on past recommendations and continues to take strong steps in improving oversight and the management of federal procurement.

Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat are working closely with government departments and agencies to address the gaps identified in previous audits. This includes improving data collection, increasing transparency in procurement decisions, clarifying roles and responsibilities and strengthening oversight and accountability in procurement activities. We are making these changes to strengthen the federal procurement process, improve the way the government does business with suppliers and achieve the best value for Canadian taxpayers.

The findings of this report are very much in line with previous reports from the Auditor General relating to similar matters. Previous reports provided the government with important recommendations to improve the oversight and integrity of federal procurement, particularly in professional services. We are taking these lessons, and I assure everyone that we are working hard to apply them.

Over the past year, PSPC has taken concrete actions to strengthen oversight on all professional services contracts falling under its authority. In collaboration with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the department has acted swiftly to implement several measures, including improving evaluation requirements to ensure resources are appropriately qualified for the job, requiring suppliers to be more transparent about the prices and subcontractors they use, improving our own documentation when awarding contracts and authorizing tasks, and better specifying and documenting what needs to be done, as well as which projects and tasks contractors are working on.

By streamlining and simplifying our mandatory procurement mechanisms, we are transforming and modernizing how the government procures professional services. This includes reducing risk in our buying processes, improving how we manage contracts and doing more to promote solution-based procurement approaches that would ensure we are always getting the best value for Canadians. The Auditor General had no additional recommendations for the government regarding this file, but asked that we continue to implement the measures we have introduced to respond to previous recommendations. We will ensure that happens. We will actively engage with client departments and agencies to ensure these new measures are implemented quickly and efficiently.

We are also taking strong action to ensure that we do not do business with suppliers of concern. Earlier this month, the office of supplier integrity and compliance deemed GC Strategies as ineligible from entering into contracts or real property agreements with the Government of Canada for seven years. PSPC had previously suspended the security status of GC Strategies in March 2024, which precluded it from participating in federal procurements with security requirements. PSPC had also suspended GC Strategies from all professional services, contracts and contract vehicles administered by the department. When it comes to recovering funds in cases where we identified fraudulent behaviour or overbilling, I can assure the House, as my colleague has mentioned, that we are pursuing GC Strategies in court.

As I noted earlier, we remain committed to protecting the integrity of procurement and to expecting public servants and departments to operate with the highest standards of integrity when procuring professional services to support their program delivery.

Our government will continue to strengthen procurement practices when needed. We know that our work is not finished and that there will be more to be done. We take to heart the Auditor General's advisement to continue applying recommendations made in previous audits. That is exactly what we are doing.

Again, I want to thank the Auditor General and her team for undertaking this review and for their findings and previous recommendations. This report affirms that we have the right policies and rules in place, but they need to be well understood and applied properly. We are thankful for the Auditor General's work, which will help us as we continue to review our processes and find ways to strengthen the integrity of government procurement.

I wanted to note something very important. There were numerous reports, as well as scrutiny, on this matter in the last Parliament, but bad actors are being held to account. It is now time for the Conservatives to stop playing games and get down to the business of governing. Canadians elected our new government to move forward on a bold agenda, such as tackling crime, securing the border and making life more affordable.

Let us put the games behind us to focus on what Canadians sent us here to do.

Emma Harrison

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