Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Sure. Would you like me to list them all?

Government Operations committee  In dollar terms, the largest item is from the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency--those two agencies--with the elimination of the visitors' rebate program, which over two years is $78.8 million. The second largest item, in HRSDC, is for $55.4 million over two years, under improved targeting of investments for youth employment.

Government Operations committee  Sure, I'll take an initial crack at that. The news release on September 25 did identify a group of some 10 or 12 programs that have been reduced or eliminated for reasons of value for money. That total is $265.6 million. The definition given of value for money focused on programs that in the judgment of the government were not achieving their results or that could be refocused or targeted for improved effectiveness.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. The secretary of the Treasury Board Secretariat was with us, but I did participate in the process. As the minister mentioned, the budget set out an objective of several billion dollars a year in cuts. Existing and potential reductions were studied by senior officials in the departments and agencies, the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Department of Finance and the Privy Council.

Government Operations committee  We, the senior officials of the central agencies, reviewed the government expenses as well as the planned expenses that had not yet been committed. We based this review on available information and evaluations carried out by the departments, in order to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of expenses following set criteria.

Government Operations committee  Part of the decision is strictly within the purview of Parliament, since the nature of appropriations would be different. Of course, the government has to...

Government Operations committee  There is one extra element, a fourth domain, I believe, and that is the domain of Parliament's control. How would Parliament like to see, overlook, and control spending? If members wouldn't mind, there's a slide on page 44 that I think summarizes the particular example of the chair when she was talking about tangible capital assets.

Government Operations committee  It's the management reporting results structure policy.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. It's the Treasury Board Secretariat, working with the Comptroller General and the Office of the Comptroller General, that prepares the appropriations requests that the President of the Treasury Board tables in the supply bills that you actually vote on in Parliament.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  They will be tabled in October. They will be voted on December 8.

Government Operations committee  The TB vote 5 is in fact set at $750 million a year.

Government Operations committee  If I might, the key issue is that Parliament votes specific amounts for specific uses, and while the member's statement about the government needing to live within a budget or an overall budgetary framework is very wise counsel, the government is not free or at its leisure to move the moneys within that framework back and forth between votes.

Government Operations committee  Good morning. With respect to the expenditure management information system, if that's what the second part of the question was about, this is a project in two parts. First, this is a project that goes back four or five years. The project was designed to replace the information systems that the secretariat uses to prepare the estimates documents for the House.