Public Accounts committee  As part of the decentralization work, we are looking at every single program-related function to determine where it's most effectively carried out, whether it's at headquarters in Gatineau or in the countries where we are working. We expect to move a substantial portion of the fu

Government Operations committee  Our ratio is 0.3%. Is the member asking about other countries?

Government Operations committee  Based on the 2009 data, Canada ranked 10th out of the 23 development assistance committee members in terms of our ODA volume, down from 9th place in 2008. On the other hand, in terms of the ODA to GNI ratio, Canada increased, moving up a place, from 15th to 14th.

Government Operations committee  Well, the last very short recession that Canada had was just prior to the commitment to double aid. Aid did not grow during that recession; it started to grow the next year.

Government Operations committee  As I said, we would have to check the record going back to the 1990-91 recession, but we could provide that.

Government Operations committee  That's correct. In 2008-09, within these other subsidies and payments, there's a significant charge. What's shown is the $163,745,000. We will provide the breakdown and explain the extraordinary charge.

Government Operations committee  We certainly can, and we'll use Statistics Canada's definition of recessions.

Government Operations committee  I must make it clear that there is no question of an envelope for each of our components. In fact, the president and the minister responsible for CIDA are free to look at the way the money is distributed between the various components. They can add money or change the way it is d

Government Operations committee  Some of those officers are, in fact, full-time employees in other departments, but part of the same deployment. It depends on the needs. If CIDA people have the expertise needed, they go. Sometimes, people are hired in the field. At other times, they are employees seconded from t

Government Operations committee  Certainly it's impossible to predict or look ahead to see how individual governments and individual countries will respond to their financial and fiscal circumstances, but also their priorities. What I can share with the committee is that the OECD published on April 14 their rev

Government Operations committee  As I mentioned before, we are talking about a cut of 1%. The 1.5% is the increment, the increase, of our salaries, the salary of an average employee—

Government Operations committee  No, we certainly do not. CIDA, in fact, currently has a turnover rate of around 10%. That reflects, currently, 3.5% or so of employees who are eligible to retire, although CIDA employees do not retire right away.

Government Operations committee  They love their work. Even if we are unable to find any efficiencies on the non-salary side, which as I've tried to lay out we're quite confident we can, CIDA certainly needs to hire each year, and we do.

Government Operations committee  I think there are three or four things I can very quickly respond to. First of all, on this amount of $163 million in 2008-09 under “other”, I would propose, if the committee likes, that we provide a written explanation. I must detail, however, that this was not a cut; it was a

Government Operations committee  No, there isn't. To the contrary, the government has been clear that....c'est Gatineau, pas Ottawa. The government has judged, and certainly other organizations have suggested to us, including the OECD, which looks at aid effectiveness on behalf of all of the donors.... There is