MPs settle in for spicy sitting as Government Operations and Estimates Committee prepares to turn up the heat on government
The House Government Operations and Estimates Committee is back in action, and opposition MPs say they are ready to turn up the heat on the government with scrutiny over every taxpayer dollar spent, while Liberals pledge to deliver on the Carney government’s agenda.
The nine-member committee, better known as OGGO, is chaired by Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West, Alta.). Liberal MP Iqwinder Gaheer (Mississauga–Malton, Ont.) and Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau (Laurentides–Labelle, Que.) serve as vice-chairs. Other members include Conservative MPs Kelly Block (Carlton Trail–Eagle Creek, Sask.), Tamara Jansen (Cloverdale–Langley City, B.C.), and Jeremy Patzer (Swift Current–Grasslands–Kindersley, Sask.); and Liberal MPs Vince Gasparro (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.), Pauline Rochefort (Nipissing–Timiskaming, Ont.), and Jenna Sudds (Kanata, Ont.).
The NDP and Greens, which do not have have recognized party status in the House this Parliament, have no seats on OGGO. Only McCauley and Block have returned to the committee from its composition at the dissolution of the previous Parliament.
The committee has long served as a stage for high-stakes political showdowns, the study of scathing watchdog reports, and long-term probes that test government accountability.
Jansen told The Hill Times that the Conservatives’ priority at OGGO will be to “continue to hold the government to account for its wasteful spending and continued failure to follow procurement practices.”
“Conservatives are deeply concerned by the continued failure of the Liberal government to demonstrate any level of fiscal restraint,” she said, accusing the government of “giving sweetheart deals to insiders,” repeating a well-worn Conservative attack line against the Liberals.
“Conservatives will continue to expose Liberal scandals and demand accountability for the misuse of taxpayers’ dollars,” Jansen said.
OGGO’s work has made headlines over the past two years, including the unraveling of the highly controversial procurement of the ArriveCAN app, which cost the government at least $59.5-million. The committee has been studying the issue since October 2022, during which time MPs have held more than 20 meetings, and heard testimonies from 65 witnesses, all of which led to the historic admonishment in the House of the ArriveCan contractor Kristian Firth, and multiple RCMP investigations.
A 2024 investigation by the auditor general stemming from an OGGO motion looked into $200-million worth of federal contracts awarded to McKinsey and Company, and found “a frequent disregard of federal contracting and procurement policies.
MPs heard from Auditor General Karen Hogan during their second fall meeting on Sept. 23, where Hogan discussed the findings of her June 10 audit reports. Those reports looked into a wide range of issues including federal office space, contracts with GC Strategies, and Canada’s plan to purchase 88 F-35 fighter jets to replace the aging CF-18 Hornets.
Bloc MP Gaudreau told The Hill Times that the Hogan’s reports show that there is a “real lack of accountability” in the government.
“Everyone knows about that, but they used to say it is the pandemic time. [But] the auditor general says we have all the rules … Sometimes even she does not even have all the data. So we have to make sure that the government is accountable to Parliament,” Gaudreau said.
Hogan repeatedly said the federal procurement does not need any more rules, and in fact warned that the government’s woes may be stemming from “too many” overlapping regulations, as well as poor implementation of those rules and urged the government to streamline its processes.
Hogan’s June report on GC Strategies, the Ottawa-based firm at the centre of the ArriveCan app controversy, concluded that federal departments “frequently disregarded procurement rules” in professional services contracts awarded between 2015 and 2024. Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has referred at least nine cases of suspected fraud to the RCMP, and has been pursuing the recovery of illegitimate amounts billed to the government. In three cases disclosed in March 2024, the government acted to get reimbursed for approximately $4-million, of which $3-million has already been repaid.
Liberal MP Rochefort told The Hill Times she was surprised to be appointed to OGGO after expressing strong interest in sitting on the House Finance Committee given her background in business. Now that she’s gone through two meetings, she said she is “very delighted” to have the opportunity to quickly dive into understanding the machinery of the government.
“It wasn’t quite what I thought, but as I thought of it further, I think it’s even a better committee because it ties finances to operations. It ties finances to plans, to vision, to strategy, and to execution,” she said.
Rochefort said she’ll be ready for OGGO’s often-heated environment with MPs’ snappy exchanges and revealing witness testimonies, but said she wants to bring her positive attitude into this setting.
When asked about his OGGO priorities, Liberal MP Gasparro said he’s “laser focused on the economy.”
That means focusing on strengthening the country’s domestic supply chains, and implementing the government’s “Buy Canada” policy throughout the government and more broadly, he said.
Praising Hogan’s work on the F-35 report, Gasparro said he is interested in looking at the finances and logistics of this procurement, as well as its effects on hiring for new pilots and personnel to ensure Canada is ready to accept the new jets.
“It’s OGGO. It’s all one, one bundle of joy. I love OGGO,” Gasparro said of his committee highlights.
‘I think PSPC needs to enforce compliance’: AG Hogan tells OGGO
When asked about which of the auditor general’s findings she was most intrigued by, Gaudreau pointed to the federal lands study. “I did not know we were so far away from the gold after five years,” she said.
Hogan told MPs that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Federal Lands Initiative—a $318.9-million fund to support the transfer or leasing of surplus federal lands and buildings for affordable housing—measures its success by the commitments made, and not the actual results. Her report had outlined that only 49 per cent of the 4,000 committed units are expected to be ready for occupancy by 2027–28.
In 2017, PSPC estimated that half of government office space was not being used to full capacity. The department committed to reducing its footprint by 50 per cent, for which Budget 2024 provided the department with $1.1-billion over 10 years to do so. However, the department currently projects that office space reductions will only be 33 per cent, according to Hogan’s report.
Efforts between 2019 and 2024 resulted in a reduction of less than two per cent of that target mainly due to a lack of funding, Hogan told MPs. PSPC—which manages an office space portfolio of about 5.9 million square metres—estimated that reducing federal office space will result in savings of approximately $3.9-billion over the next 10 years.
Hogan told MPs that not every department has the financial incentive to cut rent or reduce office space, or make it a priority to do so. She added that her office has reduced its space by almost 50 per cent.
“I think PSPC needs to enforce compliance. This is a stated government objective to reduce office space by 50 per cent by 2034, and it’s up to PSPC to entice and enforce that compliance,” she told MPs.
PSPC is the federal government’s central purchaser, managing approximately $37-billion every year on behalf of departments and agencies. It has faced increased criticism due to a series of contracting controversies over the past years which has been the centre of OGGO’s work which generated multiple auditor-general reports.
Hogan’s June report has revealed the price tag for the F-35 program has climbed from $19-billion in 2022 to $27.7-billion in 2024. Hogan underlined her findings that at least $5.5-billion more is required for critical weapons and infrastructure to reach full capability. She highlighted that the total cost is likely to grow given that the construction of two new fighter squadron facilities to support operations—expected to be completed in 2031—is more than three years behind that schedule.
Hogan told MPs that “there is no shortage of places” in which the Department of National Defence (DND) can invest. “Here you need not only trained pilots, but technicians to maintain the planes and individuals to work in these bases,” she said.
According to her report, DND planned to fill 47 out of a total of 246 permanent positions for mission planning, logistics, and security. These posts were supposed to be staffed by September 2024, but only 14 had been filled by the time the report was written.
The report also highlighted that as of March 2025, DND had committed $935-million to the United States to produce the first four jets and the delivery of necessary equipment for the future production for another eight aircraft, of which $197-million had already been paid. DND had also spent a further $516-million on the project, including $270-million for infrastructure design and site preparation.
The committee kicked off the fall sitting on Sept. 16 with testimony from interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques that the deficit will “absolutely be higher” than previous forecasts, and that his office does not know if the government has committed to any fiscal anchors.
The PBO estimated in June that the government would report a deficit of $46-billion, amounting to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2024-25.
The Hill Times
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