Department of Public Works and Government Services Act (S.C. 1996, c. 16)

Marginal note:Employee benefits

13 The Minister shall provide such administrative and other services in relation to employee benefit plans and superannuation or pension plans as the Governor in Council may direct.

Marginal note:Production, processing and distribution of films, etc.

• 14 (1) Subject to subsection (2), the Minister may provide departments, boards and agencies of the Government of Canada with production, processing and distribution services for film, within the meaning of the National Film Act, videos and any other cinematographic works that the Governor in Council may designate.

• Marginal note:Production, processing and distribution of films, etc.

  (2) Except with the approval of the Governor in Council, no department shall initiate the production or processing of a motion picture film without the authority of the Minister, and the production and processing, by or for departments, of all motion picture films shall be undertaken by the Minister unless the Minister is of the opinion that it is in the public interest that it be otherwise undertaken and authorizes it to be so undertaken.

Marginal note:Administrative and other services

15 The Minister may, on request of a department, board or agency of the Government of Canada, provide it with

• (a) management consulting services;

• (b) information management and information technology systems and services;

• (c) accounting services;

• (d) auditing services;

• (e) financial services;

• (f) services and advice in relation to the acquisition, management or disposition of real or immovable property;

• (g) architectural and engineering services, including services in respect of the adoption and application of related codes, standards, procedures, guidelines and technologies; and

• (h) services of any other kind that are within the ambit of the Minister’s powers, duties and functions.

Marginal note:Services to governments and other bodies

16 If the Minister is authorized to do a thing under this or any other Act of Parliament for or on behalf of any department, board or agency of the Government of Canada, the Minister may do that thing for or on behalf of

• (a) any department, board or agency of the Government of Canada or Crown corporation, or

• (b) with the Governor in Council’s approval — given on a general or a specific basis — any government, body or person in Canada or elsewhere.

Marginal note:Fees and charges in respect of products, services, etc.

17 The Minister may, subject to any regulations that the Treasury Board may make for the purposes of this section, charge for services provided by the Department pursuant to this Act or any other Act in force at the time this section comes into force.

Marginal note:Use of electronic and other media

• 18 (1) The Minister may use any electronic or other means to create, collect, store, transfer, receive or otherwise handle documents or information.

• Marginal note:Standards

  (2) The Minister may fix the terms and conditions, formats and other requirements for the use of any electronic or other means that must be met by persons who use that means in their dealings with the Minister.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (3) The Minister may, by regulation, prescribe the electronic or other means by which a requirement referred to in subsection (2) shall be published.

Queen’s Printer

Marginal note:Queen’s Printer

• 19 (1) The Minister may, by order, appoint an officer of the Department to be the Queen’s Printer for Canada.

• Marginal note:Queen’s Printer

  (2) The Queen’s Printer shall, under the supervision of the Minister, exercise the printing and publishing functions for the Government of Canada that are assigned to the Queen’s Printer by law or by the Minister.

Contracts

Marginal note:Contracts

20 Subject to any regulations that the Governor in Council or the Treasury Board may make for the purposes of this section, the Minister may, on behalf of the Government of Canada, enter into contracts for the performance of any matter or thing that falls within the ambit of the Minister’s powers, duties or functions.

Marginal note:Terms and conditions

• 21 (1) The Minister may fix terms and conditions of contracts, and instructions and terms and conditions with respect to other documents relating to contracts and their formation.

• Marginal note:Designation

  (2) The terms and conditions and instructions may be identified by number or other designation and may be incorporated in a contract or other document by reference to their number or other designation.

• Marginal note:Publication

  (3) The Minister may, by regulation, prescribe the electronic or other means by which a term, condition or instruction, including its identification number or other designation, shall be published.

Marginal note:Construction of terms and conditions

22 Subject to its express terms and conditions, a contract, or any document relating to the contract or its formation, entered into by the Minister that provides that instructions or terms and conditions identified by number or other designation are applicable to or form part of the contract or other document shall be read and construed as if the instructions or terms and conditions to which the reference is made were expressly set out in the contract or other document.

Procurement Ombudsman

Marginal note:Appointment

• 22.1 (1) The Governor in Council may appoint a Procurement Ombudsman for a term of not more than five years.

• Marginal note:Remuneration and expenses

  (2) The Procurement Ombudsman shall be paid the remuneration and expenses that may be fixed by the Governor in Council.

• Marginal note:General duties and functions

  (3) The Procurement Ombudsman shall, in accord­ance with the regulations,

  • (a) review the practices of departments for acquiring materiel and services to assess their fairness, openness and transparency and make any appropriate recommendations to the relevant department for the improvement of those practices;

  • (b) review any complaint respecting the compliance with any regulations made under the Financial Administration Act of the award of a contract for the acquisition of materiel or services by a department to which the Agreement, as defined in section 2 of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, would apply if the value of the contract were not less than the amount referred to in Article 504 of that Agreement.

  • (c) review any complaint respecting the administration of a contract for the acquisition of materiel or services by a department; and

  • (d) ensure that an alternative dispute resolution process is provided, on request of each party to such a contract.

• Marginal note:Other duties and functions

  (4) The Procurement Ombudsman shall also perform any other duty or function respecting the practices of departments for acquiring materiel and services that may be assigned to the Procurement Ombudsman by order of the Governor in Council or the Minister.

Marginal note:Person who may complain

• 22.2 (1) A person may only file a complaint referred to in paragraph 22.1(3)(b) or (c) if that person is a Canadian supplier within the meaning of article 521 of the agreement referred to in paragraph 22.1(3)(b) and meets any requirements prescribed by the regulations.

• Marginal note:Timing of complaint

  (2) The complaint may only be filed after the award of the contract to which the complaint relates.

• Marginal note:Findings and recommendations

  (3) The Procurement Ombudsman shall, within the period after the complaint is filed that may be established by the regulations, provide the complainant, the relevant minister and the Minister with the Procurement Ombudsman’s fin­dings and any recommendations.

• Marginal note:Limitation

  (4) The Procurement Ombudsman may not recommend the cancellation of the contract to which the complaint relates.

Marginal note:Annual Report

• 22.3 (1) The Procurement Ombudsman shall, within four months after the end of each fiscal year, deliver a report respecting the activities of the Procurement Ombudsman in that year to the Minister.

• Marginal note:Annual report to be laid

  (2) The Minister shall cause a copy of the report to be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the first 15 days on which that House is sitting after the Minister receives the report.

Regulations

Marginal note:Regulations

• 23 (1) The Governor in Council may make any regulations that the Governor in Council deems necessary for the management, maintenance, proper use and protection of federal real property and federal immovables under the administration of the Minister and of public works and for the ascertaining and collection of tolls, dues and revenues with respect to them.

• Marginal note:Fines and enforcement

  (2) The Governor in Council may, by the regulations mentioned in subsection (1),

  • (a) impose such fines, in an amount not exceeding the amount referred to in subsection 787(1) of the Criminal Code, for any contravention of a regulation as the Governor in Council deems necessary for ensuring its observance and the payment of tolls and dues;

  • (b) provide for the non-passing or detention and seizure at the risk of the owner of any thing

    • (i) on which tolls or dues have accrued and have not been paid,

    • (ii) in respect of which a regulation has otherwise been contravened or any damage done to a public work or to any federal real property or federal immovable and not paid for, or

    • (iii) for or on account of which a fine remains unpaid; and

  • (c) provide for the sale of any thing detained or seized under a regulation pursuant to paragraph (b) if the tolls, dues, damages or fines are not paid by the time fixed for such payment, and for the payment of the amounts due out of the proceeds of the sale.

• Marginal note:Surplus proceeds

  (3) The surplus proceeds, if any, of a sale referred to in paragraph (2)(c) shall be returned to the owner or the owner’s agent.

• Marginal note:Crown rights not impaired

  (4) No regulation made under subsection (1) impairs the right of the Crown to recover in the ordinary course of law unpaid tolls, dues, damages or fines.

Marginal note:Regulations

23.1 The Governor in Council may make regulations respecting

• (a) the performing of the duties and functions of the Procurement Ombudsman referred to in subsection 22.1(3), including the departments in respect of which those duties and functions shall not be performed;

• (b) the filing of complaints referred to in paragraphs 22.1(3)(b) and (c), including any conditions that must be met before a complaint may be filed and the manner in which it must be filed; and

• (c) the types of recommendations that the Procurement Ombudsman may make in response to the complaints and the time within which they must be made.

Beds of Navigable Waters

Marginal note:Power to dredge beds of navigable waters

24 Whenever the Governor in Council, or the minister charged with any work for the improvement of navigation, directs any work to be performed in any navigable water for the improvement of navigation, the officers or servants of Her Majesty or the contractors for the work, under the direction of the Governor in Council or of that minister, may

• (a) enter on, dig up, dredge and remove any part of the bed of that navigable water; or

• (b) build or erect any works on it that are directed or authorized by the Governor in Council or by that minister for the improvement of the navigation.