Information & Ethics Committee on May 3rd, 2007

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I'm glad I asked--

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

Sorry, you're at five and a half minutes.

I have myself and Ms. Davidson on the list. If there's anybody else who wants to ask any questions, please put up your hand. I'll take my five minutes.

Going to the pie chart that Mr. Wallace was referring to, item 3, “Information”, is $200,000. Of the boxes listed on page 3, where would we find that $200,000?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

It is under “Public Education”, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

Now that's what confuses me. For “Public Education and Communications” you've got $1.7 million. Then under the pie chart you've got, “Information”, $200,000, and then you've got item 2, “Transportation and Communications”, $860,000.

Is item 2, “Communications”, part of “Public Education and Communications” at $1.7 million?

[Tom Pulcine]

Do you mean item 2, “Communications”, under “Transportation and Communications”?

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

Yes, it says “Transportation and Communications”.

[Tom Pulcine]

That's for electronic communications like the telephones, Internet services--

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

So that's not part of the “Public Education and Communications” box on page 3. Is that correct?

[Tom Pulcine]

That's correct.

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

So then where is the other $1.5 million on page 3, for the “Public Education and Communications” box?

[Tom Pulcine]

In terms of all the boxes that are on the chart on page 3, they're both salary and non-salary, for your information. To give you some sense of what I think you're after, if you look in this book....

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

I'm not sure I know what I'm after. I'm just trying to read and understand how these things are presented to us.

[Tom Pulcine]

If you look at page 24, you're just going to get a repeat of that number, whereas the communication branch is the...so it probably doesn't help you. I'm not sure what you're after.

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

My point is that it's not entirely clear, because I can't really tell if I'm comparing.... I'm obviously comparing apples and oranges, and that doesn't help me.

So let me move on to something else. You've got acquisition of machinery and equipment at a quarter of a million dollars, and you've got repair and maintenance at half a million dollars. What are you repairing for half a million dollars when you just bought a quarter of a million dollars' worth of stuff?

[Tom Pulcine]

Do you want me to go with the acquisition first?

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

Yes.

[Tom Pulcine]

The acquisition of the $252,000 is made up of computer equipment of $152,000, computer software of $50,000, and then some office furniture and fixtures for $50,000. In terms of the purchase repair and maintenance, there's $50,000 allocated to maintenance of hardware and $125,000 allocated for maintenance of software.

There was a question earlier that relates to our business case implementation, the cost of our growing. This is included here as well. We've allocated $100,000 for the business case implementation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

How is that repair or maintenance?

[Tom Pulcine]

In terms of accommodating the additional staff, we had some additional space allocated to us by PWGSC, but that wasn't sufficient to accommodate this additional staff. In order for us to accommodate them, we had to retrofit some of our existing space to--

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

And you couldn't make a turnkey with your landlord, Government Services?

[Tom Pulcine]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

That's unfortunate. So I guess that's where utilities comes in. In item 7 you pay utilities?

[Tom Pulcine]

That's a mixed bag as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

Yes.

[Tom Pulcine]

It's utilities, materials, and supplies. So it's not so much utilities as--