June 29, 1951 (21st Parliament, 4th Session)

Mr. Harkness:

I have a number of questions to ask on this item. I asked quite a lot of questions in connection with this department. As a matter of fact I think I got two sessional papers, 107C and 107D which contained 24 questions altogether. Ten of these were dealt with by the Department of Public Works, and the other fourteen, perhaps I had better say, were deftly evaded by the department of public printing and stationery, and as a result of the fact that the returns were so uncommunicative in their answers I am forced to try to get the information at this time. The first question was:
How many new employees will the new government printing bureau plant have?
The answer to that was:
As the completion of the new departmental building is not expected for a considerable time, it is not possible to foresee what the printing requirements of the government will be two or three years hence, nor the nature of the equipment that may be available. Consequently it is not possible at this time to determine how many new employees will be required.
Well, the department of public printing and stationery of course must have drawn up plans for this building and how they were going to operate things. They must have some general idea of what expansion in their staff is going to be required, and how this enormous new building, which is under construction at the present time, is going to operate. I would like the minister first of all to give me any information they have in regard to what the increase in the staff is going to be from the present number of 1,043, which is given in answer to the second question in this return.