Evidence of meeting #136 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Adelle Laniel  Chief Financial Officer, Financial Management Directorate, Corporate Services Branch, Department of Finance
Galen Countryman  Director General, Federal-Provincial Relations and Social Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Brad Recker  Director, Fiscal Policy Division, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Rick Stewart  Assistant Deputy Minister, International Trade and Finance Branch, Department of Finance
Nicolas Moreau  Director, Funds Management Division, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Leah Anderson  Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Miodrag Jovanovic  Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Richard Botham  Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
Kami Ramcharan  Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Geoff Trueman  Assistant Commissioner, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Ted Gallivan  Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency

10:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Okay, on that one we're fine.

Ms. Ramcharan.

10:45 a.m.

Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency

Kami Ramcharan

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question and the point of clarification. Sometimes we use words interchangeably. In order to create a reserve, you take resources from other areas of the organization and you put it into a reserve. When you have a pressure in any organization that you're working with and it's immediate and it's urgent, you will look at where you have potential flexibility within existing resources to address that pressure.

The agency has reserve amounts of money that can help support those pressures, and it also has the ability to potentially take resources from other areas of the organization, to put towards pressure. That's all within the purview when the money is provided to the agency. It's not doing anything illegally. It isn't not delivering on the commitment that has been made.

It's looking at, for example, if you get money to staff a position for an entire year, but that person doesn't start until three quarters into the year, you have savings that you're able to reallocate to other pressures in the organization. This is something that we do on a regular basis. It's just part of how we make sure we use our resources the best way possible.

There are the two aspects that we do have, and we're doing it all within the rules and the guidelines that we have to manage the resources within the agency.

10:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony, folks.

We'll have to go to voting on the supplementary estimates.

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE

Vote 1c—Program expenditures.........$3,892,641

(Vote 1c agreed to on division)

CANADA REVENUE AGENCY

Vote 1c—Operating expenditures..........$19,241,916

(Vote 1c agreed to on division)

Shall I report the votes on supplementary estimates (C) 2017-18 to the House?

10:45 a.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

On division.

10:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Thank you very much, folks. The meeting is adjourned.