Finance committee  The interest charges that are reflected in these supplementary estimates are actually from the 2008 budget. We typically include a budgetary estimate in the mains or the supplementary estimates. The most recent interest charge for 2008-09, updated in the 2009 budget, is $30.7 billion, so about $800 million lower than this amount.

Finance committee  Somewhat. I know your problem, and what we're trying to do—I shouldn't say “we”, but we in the general sense of the word, and it's mostly Treasury Board Secretariat and the Treasury Board working on it—is introduce an early supplementary estimate, and we did that for the first time last year, to incorporate budget measures as soon as possible, so that one doesn't wait till the end of the fiscal year, both to reflect them in the estimates, one, and then, more importantly, to get the money out quickly.

Finance committee  I'm Paul Rochon, the assistant deputy minister of economic and fiscal policy.

Government Operations committee  Could be.

Government Operations committee  I can't comment specifically on the federal building initiative, but what I can say is that the moneys that have been made available to Public Works to improve federal buildings certainly are there and are available to also make energy-efficient retrofits as required, as well as to increase accessibility to federal buildings for disabled Canadians.

Government Operations committee  Why don't I answer the first question, and I'll leave the second one for the Privy Council Office. With respect to 2008-2009, which is the fiscal year we are in now, there is not any new infrastructure proposed. It would take effect in 2009-2010, the fiscal year that is about to begin in April.

Government Operations committee  Well, in Bill C-10 there is approximately $11 billion in authorities to provide stimulus with respect to the measures you raise. Most of them relate to management of various programs rather than to stimulus per se. On the specific question of public sector wages, I would just point out that the government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada agreed on the wage rates that are in the legislation.

Government Operations committee  In fact, in annex 1 of the budget, which is, admittedly, 240 pages in, we report what are referred to in the field as “multipliers”; that is, how much economic activity one gets for each dollar spent, either through infrastructure, for example, or a tax cut. The standard analysis would tell you that your most immediate bang for the buck comes from infrastructure spending.

Government Operations committee  There are a number of changes being made to accelerate the existing approval process. There are a number of proposals to change those processes, and they relate to the approval processes required to proceed with these projects. A number of those are—

Government Operations committee  I am talking about—

Government Operations committee  You're right. And on that, there have been a lot of new homes started in the summer and late 2008 that we would expect to be nearing completion in the next month or two, and as a result of this we would think that in the specific market you refer to there will be sufficient capacity to absorb this spending.

Government Operations committee  No, I'm talking about the old ones. For example, in the case of an environmental assessment, which often takes some time, there's a proposal that in cases where a provincial government has also done an environmental assessment, the federal government could use that one instead of doing a separate federal assessment, as is currently the requirement.

Government Operations committee  Look, we're not experts in infrastructure, so if you want to dig down deep on that, I'd suggest that officials from Transport Canada would be the appropriate officials to speak to.

Government Operations committee  Our understanding is that there are a number of reasons for the current delays, all of them appropriate as far as we understand, and they relate to decision-making and approval processes. Again, I'd point out that these are largely projects that are greenfield in nature, as opposed to repairs and renovations.

Government Operations committee  We haven't done a detailed study, but we have looked at that question. And of course construction employment, along with other employment, has declined recently. Further, our expectation--