Government Operations committee  There is no request today in the supplementary estimates for the Royal Alberta Museum.

Government Operations committee  Because, as I explained earlier, the two sets of estimates are quite different. At the beginning of the year, the main estimates are announced. That is our starting point, if you like. During the year, adjustments are made and new amounts of money come in and go out. You can reco

Government Operations committee  I answered the question about the staff earlier.

Government Operations committee  We chose to focus on administrative efficiency. There was no impact on Canadians.

Government Operations committee  The thing is that, in each year’s budget cycle, when we show our main costs, amounts are always added in or taken out during the year. Those are spread out over the three supplementary estimates. In this case, the $5 million amount was announced in the budget for 2012. So it co

Government Operations committee  No. I have to correct one thing here. It was announced in Budget 2011. It is just a technical matter of timing, of the appropriation cycle. Robert may be able to explain it better.

Government Operations committee  Bob is probably right. What happened in this specific case is that we had to negotiate with the organizing committee to determine what revised form the contribution agreement was going to take. That takes a little time. That is why we had to put it through the supplementary estim

Government Operations committee  As you know, the Government of Canada's commitment for museum construction can go up to $100 million. It has also committed to provide operating funds which, at the moment, are at $21.7 million. The request made today involves both the operating funds of $21.7 million and some fi

Government Operations committee  As you know, CBC/Radio-Canada is an independent organization in terms of its programming and its journalism. Of course, it will use the funds to create Canadian content and programming. To some extent, they are accountable to CRTC under the Broadcasting Act. In terms of accounta

Government Operations committee  Actually, in the past, CBC/Radio-Canada received recurring funds of about $1 billion; this $60 million amount had been renewed several times since 2001. Next year, this vote will be completely eliminated, and it will only be partial this year.

Government Operations committee  That comes from the government envelope for advertising. The additional $200,000 come from that envelope.

Government Operations committee  With pleasure, Mr. Blanchette. If I remember correctly, when I appeared here in May, I explained to you that, about three years ago, our department was facing a structural deficit of more than $60 million. Actually, when salary increases were included, we realized that it was cl

Government Operations committee  I have two comments about that. First, that is the reason that the cuts made in order to deal with the structural deficit have been made to the administration only. The minister has been clear on a number of occasions: he did not want programs affected and he wanted to see more e

Government Operations committee  It is a matter of timing, really. It is all about the appropriation cycle. It was announced in the main estimates last year. We had to put it in the supplementary estimates (B) so that we could access the money.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to meet with the members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. With me today, as the chair has mentioned, is Robert Hertzog, who is the department's chief financial officer, and René Bouchard, who is the executive di