The House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities met to study Cúram Software and the processing of old age security, and to consider Bill C-20, An Act respecting the establishment of Build Canada Homes. Appearing for the first hour were Minister Patty Hajdu, Minister Joël Lightbound, and officials including Cliff Groen, Associate Deputy Minister and Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada. For the second hour, Minister Gregor Robertson appeared alongside officials to discuss Bill C-20.
Cliff Groen testified that the backlog of seniors waiting for their first old age security payment had decreased from 85,000 in late January to 63,000, and that the average wait time for the pensions call centre was consistently between 25 and 35 minutes. He stated that overtime was voluntary and that the department was confident it would remain under the overall budget for the benefits delivery modernization program, noting that the old age security portion came in 6% under its forecast. He also confirmed that payment accuracy for OAS was 97.5% year-to-date, and that Quebec accounted for about 13% of the backlog despite representing 25% of total OAS clients, but he said the department does not collect data on Indian status or urban versus rural breakdown for applicants.
Minister Hajdu argued that the modernization was a responsible response to warnings from the Auditor General dating back to 2010, and that the $1.8 billion spent to date and the long-term estimate of $6.6 billion were in line with international comparators. She said that 89.6 million payments had been issued to 7.7 million clients with 99% accuracy in the migration, and that most delays were due to missing information on paper applications, not system-wide issues. She encouraged seniors in urgent financial need to contact Service Canada for rapid resolution, and declined an invitation from a member to jointly visit front-line employees, saying she would not turn such a visit into a partisan circus.
Minister Lightbound emphasized that the old age security system was 60 years old and that the Auditor General had warned in 2010 that failing to modernize placed benefits at risk. He noted that the Cúram software contract with IBM was awarded competitively for $120.5 million, and that four integrators were selected to avoid reliance on a single supplier. He stated that in Quebec, fewer than 10,000 cases remained in the backlog out of 1.8 million recipients, and that the cost of the OAS portion was $633 million, 6% under budget.
During the second hour, Minister Robertson testified that Bill C-20 would create Build Canada Homes as a permanent Crown corporation to build affordable housing, with an initial $13 billion investment and tools including grants, loans, loan guarantees and equity investments. He said that over 10,000 homes were already in the pipeline, with partnerships announced in Nunavut, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Quebec and Ottawa, and that the agency would prioritize Canadian materials and modern construction methods. He confirmed that women’s shelters operating as transitional or supportive housing are eligible for funding, and that rural projects are being bundled into provincial proposals, citing New Brunswick where 30% of units are in rural communities.
A member moved a motion requesting that multiple departments provide all documents related to the Benefits Delivery Modernization program since 2017 within 30 days, with redactions as required by law. Debate on the motion was adjourned on a point of order. A separate motion to schedule three additional meetings on Bill C-20 before clause-by-clause consideration was adopted.
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