Government Operations committee  Thank you. I am Wayne Wouters, Secretary of the Treasury Board.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, members of the committee. I have a bit of a cold, so if you could, bear with me here today. I am here today to speak to the role of the Treasury Board of Canada and of the Secretariat in the matter of the federal funding for light rail tra

Government Operations committee  Well, again, compensation is more than a salary. When we say “we should not lead, but be comparable to”, we look at all aspects of compensation. That is wages and salary, that's pension benefits, health benefits. That's how we compare. So in some cases we may come out a little

Government Operations committee  There were cases a number of years ago when it was really difficult to hire IT people, our CSs, so as part of that collective bargaining agreement, to recognize the market, we put in place what was called a terminal allowance. In addition to the wage increase or salary increase o

Government Operations committee  Go ahead.

Government Operations committee  Yes, it will go up by that amount and then stay at that amount; that's the plan. That's part of the overall estimates process, and of course this is for the registrar's office to be able to undertake the new responsibilities under his or her responsibility for lobbying, including

Government Operations committee  I don't have the ongoing budget. Do you, Alister? The intent is to have an increase of $1.2 million, and whatever the current budget is—I don't have that—it would be a one-time increase of $1.2 million, ongoing.

Government Operations committee  The intent is for the office to engage new staff to support the new responsibilities.

Government Operations committee  I can't comment on whether it's going to be 100%. To get this up and running, they may need some outside support, but the long-term objective normally with these agents of Parliament is that they hire their own staff.

Government Operations committee  It depends. If they need IT support—and IT expertise is not at all unusual or uncommon—it may be appropriate to help them set up the system.

Government Operations committee  This government actually has approved a new compensation framework, and one of the key principles in that compensation framework is that while we do not necessarily want to lead the market, we need to be competitive with the market. That's normally with those who are entering int

Government Operations committee  Yes, we're getting really good responses right across the country.

Government Operations committee  Some are screened out, but most are very well qualified.

Government Operations committee  I'm going to ask David to answer.

Government Operations committee  Yes. If you want, we can pass all this information on to the relevant departments and they can follow up and ensure the information is provided to you.