Information & Ethics Committee on Nov. 6th, 2006

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

We're ahead.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

We're ahead, meaning we're saving money over what we've spent, what we were allocated. Is that correct?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

Yes, that's correct.

Currently, as I mentioned, we have some issues around getting accommodation for some of the extra bodies that we were allocated.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So of that allocation, because this is done in numbers, the one I'm looking at in tab 4 is not done in bodies. Where are the bodies?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

Bodies are on the second page.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Where are we in terms of number of hirees in 2006-07?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

I think it's 16 that have not been hired.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

They are still unhired but are budgeted for?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

That's right.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

And what's your expectation on having them hired by the end of this fiscal year?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

Our expectation is that we will probably have underspent by about a million dollars.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So technically, this committee could remove half a million dollars today and you'd still be safe.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

Technically, you could, yes.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Are you looking at coming for supplementaries?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

If Bill C-2 were to pass, we would then look to what we have not spent of that $1 million to see what we could use for one-time costs for Bill C-2. For ongoing, we would come back in next year's budget.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

On the money side, in 2007-08 my expectation is that it will go down by about $500,000. Then it will stay about the same in 2008 and really drop off again in 2009-10. This is in addition to the $5.5 million you're already getting. Is that correct?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

Yes. Once we get the backlog out of the way and get back to treating incoming complaints within the standards I mentioned to you--four months for the tough ones and one month for the...we will still need the $1.5 million additional to our ongoing budget to meet that.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So my point today then--because I'm new here--is with this $2.8 million, how many new bodies are to be hired?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

If you look a the second page of that tab you'll see it's 22.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

And you've only hired eight of them. Is that correct?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

I believe it's six.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So of 22 you've hired six.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

That's correct.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Taking Bill C-2 into account, which I know you've been looking at, will you actually need more money? Have you hired everybody who's supposed to be hired by this time?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

No, we haven't made any budget requests for Bill C-2.