Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to members of the committee for inviting us here today.
As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, I have with me Monsieur Jean-Pierre Blais, assistant deputy minister of cultural affairs—no stranger to the committee—and I'm flanked on my right by Tom Scrimger, assistant deputy minister of citizenship and heritage. He has also served as our chief financial officer, which is relevant to our discussions today.
Mr. Chair, as you mentioned, we are here to respond to questions on supplementary estimates (B). In this regard, I wanted to briefly run through the elements of our mandate and recent activities that touch upon our expenditures.
As you know, our mandate affects key aspects of Canadians' cultural and civic lives. Canadian Heritage works with Canada's major national cultural institutions to promote arts and culture, heritage, official languages, citizenship and participation, as well as aboriginal, youth and sport initiatives. Our programs are delivered in communities throughout Canada.
We've had a busy year, Mr. Chair.
It has been a busy year for us with the renewal of many programs, work on a digital strategy, Expo 2010 in Shanghai, the royal tour, the Commonwealth Games in India and, of course, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, where we were the lead department.
I think a high-water mark in the life of the Department of Canadian Heritage over the last several years.
We continue to provide in the range of 7,500 grants and contributions every year, and have for the first time published service standards for their delivery.
Let me turn quickly to Canada's economic action plan. We've been busy delivering on this over the course of the last year, and we do remain on target.
In 2009-10 we funded projects and programs worth more than $150 million on action plan initiatives.
This year, as of October 31, we've funded more than $106 million of initiatives developed through five programs: the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, the Canada Arts Training Fund, the Canada Periodical Fund, the Canada Media Fund, and Special Olympics Canada.
As we are here, Mr. Chair, to respond to questions on supplementary estimates (B), I'd like to go through, if I may, some highlights with the committee.
Let me start with the bottom line. The net impact of the supplementary estimates will be an increase of $30.1 million to the spending authority of the department. This funding is being used for the following initiatives.
I will start with sport.
Budget 2010 renews funding of $5 million annually that was originally announced in Budget 2003. This supports the La Relève initiative for the identification and development of the next generation of high-performance athletes.
Additionally, $17 million annually has been added to continue to develop high-performance athletes participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. These funds will continue to 2014-2015.
Canadian Heritage currently provides $47 million annually towards enhanced excellence funding for targeted summer and winter sports as part of the own the podium (OTP) initiative. The new funds are expected to increase OTP-winter funding to $22 million and OTP-summer funding to $42 million per year.
To support persons with a disability, the Government of Canada is providing an additional $5 million to the Canadian Paralympic Committee and another $1 million to Special Olympics Canada annually for the next 5 years. These funds will enable these organizations to build on their participation activities and athlete-development initiatives, encouraging participation in sport.
In 2007, the Government of Canada announced the renewal of ParticipACTION. An additional investment of $3 million per year for 2 years, announced in Budget 2010, will help the organization promote healthy lifestyles through physical activity and sport participation, and generate more resources through the private sector.
I'll move now to the arts, Mr. Chair. Through the supplementary estimates (B) the Government of Canada is also supporting Prairie Scene 2011, which will be held in Ottawa from April 26 to May 7, and will showcase artists from the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This is the fifth scene event produced by the NAC. Previous events showcased the Atlantic, Alberta, Quebec, and British Columbia. The department has made an investment in all four previous festivals, and we will contribute over the course of this year $250,000 to the NAC for costs associated with Prairie Scene 2011.
Turning now to cost containment measures, in the 2010 federal budget the government's plan was to bring the budget back to balance by putting in place targeted measures to reduce the rate of growth of spending that will build over the medium term. In order to achieve this plan, a number of cost-containment measures on our administrative budget have been implemented. For example, in 2010-11, Canadian Heritage budgets were not increased to fund the 1.5% increase in annual wages for the federal public administration. The department was also required to reallocate from the remainder of its operating budgets to fund this increase.
Two reductions of note are included in the estimates before you. Since funds were received in 2009-2010 for salary increases in 2010-11 and future years, these funds are to be removed from the department's budget, which amounts to $1.67 million. There's also a reduction of $490,000 to the budget of the offices of the minister and the minister of state.
Mr. Chair, I hope this information will be useful to the committee.
We would now be pleased to respond to any questions you may have.
I hope this information will be useful to the committee. We would now be pleased to respond to any questions you may have.