We're at your mercy. I didn't even bring the supplementary estimates with me because they're too heavy for my staff to carry, much less plow through them all.
It's just ridiculous. You come to us saying you're seeking Parliament's authority to spend $4.4 billion. It's really that you're seeking Parliament's “permission”. We're supposed to grant you “permission” to spend that money, to put it in the right context. It's my goal to dumb down the estimates process, and fortunately I'm very qualified to do that, at least.
Let me start with what almost seems like a contradiction in what your testimony is today.
In one paragraph of your report you're seeking Parliament's permission to spend $4.4 billion, but you're also saying that this pile of supplementary estimates is announcing a decrease of statutory spending in the amount of $2 billion. I guess this is why we put in place the Parliamentary Budget Officer, to help ordinary mortals like us wade through an incomprehensible system of estimates.
In that context, let me ask my first question. We ask the Parliamentary Budget Officer to help us at least understand the budgetary freezes, the impact of the departmental freezes. He will testify later, I suppose. But from what I understand, they ask the government how they intend to achieve their planned operating budget freeze over the projected period. But the government indicated that this information is a cabinet confidence and will not be released to the public. We should put it into context first. The Parliamentary Budget Officer is not the public; he is our agent. He's the guy we commissioned for a specific task to help us understand what the hell is going on. It disappoints me that the door is slammed in his face when he asks the very question that we put to him.
In fact, the standing committee has put the very same question to the government, and it's currently being assessed as to whether the government will tell Parliament how they intend to achieve its planned operating budget freeze. Is what you bring us today the manifestation of that request? Or are we still waiting for that request?