Government Operations committee  If I may, I think it would be better to put this question to the minister.

Government Operations committee  There are three parts there that I could speak to. Number one, as the chair mentioned, is that the supplementary estimates have included for parliamentarians' information those aspects of the restraint measures that mean that spending of $220-some million that was previously requested of Parliament will not proceed.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  The budget for 2006 established a spending reduction target of one billion dollars.

Government Operations committee  I don't want to comment on good business practice. We think that good government is spending the taxpayer's dollar well.

Government Operations committee  Certainly. The news release itemized the specific detailed savings into four areas, as the member has just set out. In the order that they show in the table, the first of those is efficiency. A total of $256 million over two years was identified in terms of efficiencies, which were defined as follows: savings from streamlining or consolidation of activities or from operational or program efficiencies, as well as programs or services that can be provided or are being provided elsewhere.

Government Operations committee  You're not required, in fact.

Government Operations committee  Of course, the Minister of Finance is accountable for the overall level of spending. Our job is to ensure that the government is in a position to achieve its goals at the lowest possible cost, and that it has the information required to consider whether its goals remain relevant within the stated order of priorities.

Government Operations committee  We were drawing on the evaluation evidence at hand, and to a considerable degree, these were not evaluations conducted during the course of this year. A good evaluation study takes six, twelve, or eighteen months. Some of this information was out there; we were systematically pulling it together with a focus, in that case, on efficiency, yes, but also effectiveness.

Government Operations committee  I was not at the Treasury Board Secretariat when the 2005 exercise was conducted.

Government Operations committee  There is no particular regional impact, no, beyond the fact that more employees are centred in the national capital region than anywhere else.

Government Operations committee  The analysis we've done, and the advice we provided to ministers--I believe the President of the Treasury Board made the statement on September 25--is that by our estimates there would be less than 300 individual positions affected. Madame Charette spoke about a number of them. Those are affected positions, not individuals.

Government Operations committee  The consultations I'm describing included ministers, deputy ministers, and cabinet discussions.

Government Operations committee  I don't believe I'm in a position to describe any individual items that may have been discussed. That's in the nature of advice to ministers, and there was a cabinet committee process that reviewed the proposals. However, with respect to the overall process, I can tell you that we looked right across the government.