Government Operations committee  In the case of the federal government particularly, it has probably been the last five years or so.

Government Operations committee  Let's take the example of the reports on plans and priorities. There is detail down to the program level, which I think is quite positive, but one of the major changes that could be done relatively rapidly is to show why these estimates are changing over time—why “budgeted” diffe

Government Operations committee  It would certainly be preferable if the introduction of the main estimates bills—and the RPPs, for that matter—included what had just been passed in the budget. It essentially all happens at exactly the same time, but nothing is connected to anything until halfway through the nex

Government Operations committee  It's definitely challenging once you start getting into capital purchases that are accrued over 10 or 20 years, as you said, in the sense that for most departmental spending, we have an idea three years out, say, and after that, it's my understanding—although I stand to be correc

Government Operations committee  I don't know that there's any way I would be able to find them. You're much better placed than I am, given that you have better access to the system of Parliament and the Library of Parliament. I think that may speak to one of the challenges in not having sufficient detail for t

Government Operations committee  I didn't look at them extensively—

Government Operations committee  I have looked at that aspect in the past, absolutely, but not in this particular report.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  The calendar shift seems like an interesting suggestion. It would certainly be more interesting to see the mains reflect the budgetary changes than to wait throughout the year for the supplementals to update what's actually happening. The reports on plans and priorities estimat

Government Operations committee  Oh, yes.

Government Operations committee  Let me be a bit more specific there. In the revenue estimates that come in every year, as you say, there's a fair amount provided in tax credits, so there are, in effect, expenditures in a sense, and there is less revenue in another sense. I think there is room for evaluating tax

Government Operations committee  Yes. I think that would be great.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. As I wrote this report and started to see how these different pieces of the future estimates came together, I thought it was important that they be tied together better. In terms of my recommendations, I was looking specifically at some of the future

Government Operations committee  One of the important changes that could be included in the main estimates, which is partially included in the RPPs, is much better accounting down to the program level and actual projects and determining how those projects change over time. For instance, taking a look at HRSDC,

Government Operations committee  When it comes to the main estimates on the expenditure side, if MPs were given a full list of what that was buying in each department and the historical context of how it's changing—how many people are being employed and why it's changing—this committee and others could ask much