Official Languages committee  Right, but I was talking about the immigration project.

Official Languages committee  Good morning. I am pleased to appear before you today in my capacity of Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Services and Official Languages Champion for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the ACOA. I am accompanied by my colleague Mr. Wade Aucoin, ACOA's Director General of the Community Development directorate.

Industry committee  Right off the bat, I just want to point out that allocations for Canada's economic plan are very different. ACOA is only receiving one third of what is being allocated to WED. ACOA received money through a special vote intended to allow the money to be accessed quickly. We asked for an additional $4.5 million, meaning that our request is lower than what appeared in the Supplementary Estimates (B).

Industry committee  Yes. They were loans to companies and we were not able to collect on them. That's right.

Industry committee  I think the difference is that some vote transfers come directly from Treasury Board. One of them that all the regional agencies would have had is the operating budget carry-forward, but we have an allocation that if we don't spend--

Industry committee  That's not reflected in there. The other thing is that the Government of Canada created vote 35 to provide quick access to the economic action plan money. We received additional money from vote 35.

Industry committee  There are only small items.

Industry committee  It's an exception to the rule because of the way the debt was created.

Industry committee  The transaction you're referring to is related to a writeoff that the agency needs to do. In order to do that, there was a special vote created at Treasury Board, so—

Industry committee  Okay, let me just get a copy. It's under 1b?

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  We have a loan that was transferred to ACOA upon its creation. It's related to the Newfoundland and Labrador Development Corporation.

Industry committee  It's the same thing.

Industry committee  The debt was transferred upon ACOA's creation. It related to the Newfoundland and Labrador Development Corporation. When ACOA inherited the debt, our only responsibility was to manage that loan. We've exhausted all possible avenues to collect the loans, so we're now proceeding with the writeoff.

Industry committee  No.