The committee's work this session has revolved around two broad clusters of concern: how the federal government buys goods and services, and what it does with the buildings and land it owns. On procurement, meetings from May through June 2026 examined the "buy Canadian" policy through the eyes of its architects at Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, industry associations, unions and individual firms. Witnesses from steel, aluminum, rail manufacturing, truck assembly and the building trades all argued the policy is a useful start but insufficient on its own, urging debundling of contracts, lower thresholds, clearer Canadian-content definitions, attention to total cost of ownership, and a broader industrial strategy. Small business representatives warned that labour conditions and administrative burden could exclude the 96 per cent of SMEs that are non-unionized, while union witnesses pressed for a complementary "hire Canadian" approach. Academic and think-tank witnesses cautioned about orphan fleets, free-trade constraints and "post office box" suppliers, and officials acknowledged that compliance rests largely on self-attestation with risk-based audits still being developed.

A separate and recurring thread has been fiscal oversight and the estimates themselves. The Parliamentary Budget Officer appeared repeatedly, presenting the 2026-27 main estimates of $502.8 billion in budgetary authorities, warning that the government has less than a one per cent chance of meeting its deficit-to-GDP anchor without policy changes, and flagging rising debt service charges, the undefined second fiscal anchor, and the difficulty of tracking budget measures from announcement to public accounts. PBO officials were skeptical that Build Canada Homes would "move the needle," estimating 26,000 units over five years against a 500,000-home target, and questioned the transparency of the spring economic update and the Canada Strong fund. Departmental officials from PSPC, Shared Services Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Privy Council Office and the Governor General's office described expenditure review savings, pay system modernization, AI governance and return-to-office decisions, while facing questions about consulting contracts, the Phoenix backlog, undisclosed governors general expenses, and procurement fraud referrals to the RCMP.

The most recent meetings turned to surplus and underused federal properties, particularly the Colonel James Layton Ralston Armoury in Amherst, Nova Scotia. Witnesses there—a local MLA, the mayor, a veterans' organization executive, a regimental museum representative, and the heads of VETS Canada and the Homes For Heroes Foundation—broadly agreed that vacant former military sites should be transferred to qualified veteran-serving organizations before permanent disposal, and that veterans' homelessness is undercounted. They described rural service gaps, long waits for decisions, and the difficulty of competing for land. Veterans Affairs officials said the department owns no real property and repeatedly redirected questions on the unused $3 million in the veteran homelessness program and on surplus property decisions to other departments. Witnesses disagreed on specifics: whether the Amherst project should be exclusively for veterans or integrated with the wider community, whether it comprises 16 or 20 units, whether the $20 million estimate would be better spent repairing the armoury and building on vacant land, and whether supportive housing works better in urban or rural settings.

Across the session, the committee has also spent time on matters outside these two clusters—a Conservative motion on the Gordie Howe International Bridge revenue-sharing agreement, which was debated and adjourned without a vote amid disagreement over whether the Prime Minister misled Canadians, and Canada Post's financial situation and transformation plan, where officials described declining letter mail, paused net-zero spending, and unapproved plans for community mailboxes and slower delivery. Procedurally, members have repeatedly sparred over scope and pace, with Bloc and Conservative members pressing for documents and witnesses and expressing frustration that studies might produce only another framework, while the committee agreed to invite ministers, added witnesses, and deferred at least one motion on National Capital Commission procurement for further discussion.