Today, the Auditor General of Canada presented her report on the performance audit of real property management, which examined the management of the government's office space portfolio, as well as the management of the Federal Lands Initiative.
I welcome the findings of the Auditor General's report and thank her for her important work on this file. Our government remains fully committed to fairness, openness and transparency in the management of federal real property.
In general, the report found that the government has encountered delays in achieving the target of reducing its office space portfolio by 50%, and that a lack of information from some federal tenants is impeding this work.
The report also found that the Federal Lands Initiative, under the leadership of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), is on target to meet its housing affordability, energy efficiency and accessibility targets.
The Auditor General makes recommendations for Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) and Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC). Our government accepts all of the recommendations.
In particular, I welcome the recommendation that PSPC improve its public reporting on progress toward achieving the 50% reduction of its office portfolio by 2034. The department recently shared an update on its website and will provide updates on results annually going forward.
My department also remains committed to working with federal departments and agencies to improve data collection so that we can better achieve our office space portfolio targets.
The report recommends that TBS assess its capacity to resume the work of the former Centre of Expertise for Real Property. While the funding for this centre has concluded, TBS will continue to support departments in the management of real property and, based on available capacity, will seek opportunities to address outstanding priorities from the Horizontal Fixed Asset Review.
Finally, the report recommends that HICC improve its reporting mechanisms and review its current tools and measures to ensure alignment with the goals of the Federal Lands Initiative. HICC will continue to work in collaboration with CMHC to report results on a quarterly basis through the National Housing Strategy Progress Report. HICC and CMHC will also work together to explore measures to ensure projects support housing that is affordable in communities that need it.
I am committed to working closely with TBS and HICC to implement the Auditor General's recommendations in an open and transparent way and will provide updates on our government's progress toward reducing the federal office footprint.
