Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses, especially for appearing in person. I think it makes this a lot easier. We had a meeting last week that was a bit challenging, so I really appreciate it.
The one person I guess I'm missing is the Minister of Finance. Instead of making that a negative, I will turn it into a positive. I would once again like to thank the Minister of National Revenue for coming last hour. We greatly appreciate that.
I want to start with the current budget, and then I will work my way back.
The current budget is forecasting about $15 billion in savings, $7 billion of that coming from an across-the-board 3% cut. I'm a little skeptical that this will actually happen, because the last fall economic statement said there would be $3 billion in department savings, and in reality there was not $3 billion in savings. It was a bit—what's the proper word here, because I don't want to go too hard—disingenuous, because under that column, the Department of Finance put elapsed COVID savings to fill in the gap of that $3 billion in savings.
I don't think that's altogether fair, but I would like your comment on it.