Thank you very much.
Before I get into my questioning, I think it's important that we clarify something. I know you didn't venture down this...but I can, for my colleague, Mr. Regan. He was asking specifically if there were dollars through the Building Canada Fund allocated in the last budget...or Canada's action fund. There was $500 million allocated to double-up the commitment for the communities component in the last budget. That was included in the last budget. So that's helpful information for my colleagues and also for the people who may be looking at what we're doing today.
I want to ask Mr. Smith if you might just talk about.... I know we can't ask Treasury Board about a lot of the stimulus spending, because it's other departments. But I know Treasury Board itself has undertaken some initiatives that will stimulate the local economy and will create jobs.
Specifically, there was the announcement on behalf of the president of the Treasury Board, and that was with regard to the hiring of Canadian students for the summer. These students will be working under the federal student work experience program, the cooperative education/internship program, and the research affiliate program.
I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about that in terms of the dollars your department is allocating and spending on that--what these allocations include and how many additional jobs will be created as a result of that spending. In addition to that, is this a statutory vote, the funding for this particular program, including the increase?