Government Operations committee  First, the Parliamentary Budget Officer does not make recommendations. You mentioned a different approach. In Quebec, credits are approved by a parliamentary committee, immediately and very soon after the budget, and some transfers are, indeed, authorized. Based on my current understanding of what is going to happen, there will still be an opportunity for departments to transfer some funds within those targets.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. We hope that it will improve things. A document like this is interesting for anyone involved in the areas of finance and accounting. We do hope that it will improve understanding for parliamentarians. Do not forget that we do not work for the departments, we work for parliamentarians.

Government Operations committee  I agree in part. Ideally, the approval process should be program by program, as the government previously asked. It is easier, for example, to examine one program and the corresponding amount, then another, and so on. High-level expenditures, such as statutory spending, budgetary spending or other kinds such as salaries, will now be based on the same objectives.

Government Operations committee  I think the first year will be the acid test for that pilot project, because we will see if it's possible to have this alignment very quickly. The first year, we'll have some kind of a really good test. The point here, to go back to what I said and to what Mostafa explained very well, is whether it's an incentive for both Treasury Board and Finance to have better collaboration and come with something that will be aligned with the budget.

Government Operations committee  I don't have a solution.

Government Operations committee  Jason, on Australia...?

Government Operations committee  Thank you, but I have no further comments, except to repeat that we find the approach very commendable in trying to harmonize the estimates and providing parliamentarians with clearer documents. I want to be very clear on that. In the budget process, it is your role to approve those sums of money.

Government Operations committee  I would say—

Government Operations committee  My assessment is that we won't have the choice; we will see. As I said, it's clearly a pilot project. We will see next year how parliamentarians will react to that. Mostafa might want to add something to that. We have views, but I'm a very positive person. As I said, you will also have more time at the end because the deemed reporting to Parliament will be pushed to later in June.

Government Operations committee  To quote the President of the Treasury Board, Australia is a model to follow. He also mentioned the Netherlands, but Australia is probably one of the best examples. Over there, both treasury and finance work really closely together. They're moving together. Their collaboration is clear.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. The answer comes in two parts. First, we all know that your time is limited. So, if the documents are clearer and easier to understand, and if the figures in the budget and the main estimates are better aligned and better organized, clearly, your examination of them will be made easier, and consulting the documents from end to end will be quicker.

Government Operations committee  And with the same accounting, yes. That was a recommendation of the committee in 2012. As I explained, it is what happens in other countries. The difficulty is that I am not convinced that it can be done and I refer specifically to 2012. That is when senior officials said that the main estimates and the budget could never be aligned, for various reasons, such as accounting, financial year and cash flow, but also because of the amounts of the spending.

Government Operations committee  I don't think it's a problem with the supplementary estimates; it's a problem with the main estimates. The 44% that you mentioned is interesting, because it was the following year: this year. Last year, in the main estimates, you could see 70% of the spending measures included. The reason is simple; it was a big chunk of money under the infrastructure program.

Government Operations committee  We said in our report analysis that this move from the President of the Treasury Board was laudable. We still mention that. We welcome that. We welcome that for parliamentarians. We work for parliamentarians. But we have some restrictions, or when we observe and then we make the analysis as we did and follow the money document, we can see that it's going to be very difficult.

Government Operations committee  Yes, the last fiscal year.