Committee Update
The latest on Stephanie’s work on Government Operations (OGGO) Committee
Committee Room in West Block
As Shadow Minister for Treasury Board, Stephanie is a member of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO).
Thanks to the hard work of Stephanie and her Conservative colleagues, OGGO was recently voted the best House committee by the Hill Times due to its efforts on uncovering government scandals and inefficiencies, such as:
ArriveCAN
Due to allegations of forged resumes, identity theft, contractual theft, fraudulent billing, price fixing and collusion made by the company Botler AI, Conservatives reopened the study into ArriveCAN this past year.
GC Strategies, an IT firm of two people that subcontract all work, are centered in the Botler controversy, and are the same company that was paid $11 million of the $54 million paid for ArriveCAN, an app that was originally meant to be $80,000.
This study has allowed MPs a better look into the government’s contracting process to seek accountability and a complete overhaul of the procurement process.
Governor General Report
At the beginning of the fall session, Conservatives tabled the committee’s report on the Governor General’s excessive spending on a trip to the Middle East in 2022 that cost $1.15 million, $80,000 of which was used for inflight catering alone.
The Conservative supplementary report included additional recommendations in order to encourage fiscal responsibility in the office of the Governor General.
Canada Life
On July 1st 2023, the government switched the administration of the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) from Sun Life to Canada Life. At the same time, they updated the plan.
During this process, the Liberals decided to utilize a less efficient manual enrolment process, rather than the industry standard automatic enrolment process, causing significant difficulty for members.
Why did the government choose this route? To clear out the old system that they had not been properly maintaining.
As a result, call centres were overwhelmed and many members unable to receive their benefits in a timely matter.
What’s ahead for OGGO?
More ArriveCAN
This January, before the House sat, OGGO met twice to find more answers to the questions surrounding the ArriveCAN controversy.
A consultant connected with some of the ArriveCAN contractors by the name of Vaughn Brennan, was the first to be questioned. This consultant has been accused of building many inside connections, and our hope was to begin unearthing how deep these connections go.
The second meeting invited the current and former president of the CBSA, Erin O’Gorman and John Ossowski to provide further insight as to the decisions that occurred behind the scenes. Here we tried to get more answers as to why two witnesses who used to work in the CBSA, Cameron MacDonald and Anthony Utano, were recently suspended without pay after their testimony to OGGO, and whether this connected to a greater trend of whistleblower reprisal in the CBSA.
The ArriveCAN study will continue this winter as we bring back witnesses, analyze the documentation we have been provided, and continue to fight to hold this government to account.
Budget 2024/Estimates
OGGO will be analyzing the main estimates and the budget when it is tabled in the spring.