Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am pleased to be able to give the committee an overview of the department's supplementary estimates (B) for 2012-13.
I have prepared a small deck presentation, which you received a copy of, so I will take you to page 2. Today's goal is to provide you with details of the key changes to our spending authorities for the year 2012-13.
Page 3 gives you an overall picture of where the funding authorities for the department would stand following supplementary estimates (B) approval. As you can see, under the main estimates, the department was allocated just below $1.7 billion. Then we have carry-forward amounts for funding we were entitled to bring from one year to the following year. So within our authorities we've moved $123 million from the previous year to the year 2012-13.
Under supplementary estimates (A), the department was allocated an additional amount of close to $6 million.
Under supplementary estimates (B), we're seeking approval for an increase to our budget of over $82.6 million.
The total spending authorities of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be brought to slightly under $1.9 billion for year 2012-13.
I'll move to page 4. The gross increase to the appropriations we are seeking through this estimates exercise is just under $88 million, and I'll cover the key items of that amount a little later. That amount is offset with a decrease to our appropriations of $3.6 million. This $3.6 million that appears in supplementary estimates is in relation to the strategic and operating review reductions as announced in Budget 2012. In Budget 2012 it was announced that the department would sustain a reduction of $79.3 million in three years. The $3.6 million that you see in these estimates is actually the first-year reduction, so the reduction for the year 2012-13.
In addition, in the supplementary estimates you have a section called “Transfers”, which covers two types of transfers. One is transfers within the department, so between our votes. As you know, when we obtain our funding, it is in what I will call different “buckets” of money. We have our vote 1, which represents our operating expenditures, including salary expenditures; our vote 5, which is our capital expenditures; and our vote 10, which is our grants and contributions. The department and the minister, by the same token, do not have the authority to move funding from one bucket to the other, from one vote to the other, so as we need to move funding, we need to get the parliamentary authority through the estimates process. That's what's included in the transfers.
Transfers also include transfers between government departments. As we join forces to deliver on certain activities, we may need to transfer funding from Department A to Department B, or we may receive funding from another department. The net amount of these transfers equals a decrease to our funding of just over $1.6 million.
I'll go through the key items on page 5 of the document.
The first item is just over $21.6 million, relating to the Pacific integrated commercial fisheries initiative. In the main estimates...we had a considerable decrease from the main estimates of the previous year. When I was at this committee earlier on, in late May or early June, I indicated that one of the main reasons for these reductions was that a lot of our programs were sunsetting in March 2012. Budget 2012 actually gave us some renewed funding for a considerable number of these sunsetting programs. The Pacific integrated commercial fisheries initiative is one of them, so the funding was sunsetting in March 2012, but Budget 2012 gave us a one-year funding renewal of $21.7 million.
The next item is close to $18 million for the acquisition of offshore science vessels: three science vessels and one offshore oceanographic science vessel. Basically, $13.2 million of that close to $18 million is dedicated to the procurement of these ships. Also included in that amount is $4.8 million that was given to us through Budget 2012 for the effective management and oversight of the fleet procurement in relation to the fleet renewal.
The $11.8 million you see next is in relation to Budget 2012 and the fleet renewal we received, so that's the $5.2 billion announced in Budget 2012. That $11.8 million is particularly related to the vessel life extension and mid-life modernization of certain of our ships.
There is $10.8 million for the renewal of the Atlantic integrated commercial fisheries initiative. Again, this is the same as for the Pacific integrated commercial fisheries initiative. This program was sunsetting in March 2012, and Budget 2012 gave us a one-year renewal of $10.8 million for this program.
The following $10 million is to support science and sustainable fisheries—what we refer to as the Larocque program. This is a program with a portion that sunsetted in March 2012 and for which Budget 2012 gave us a one-year renewal.
The following item is the $7.5 million related to the implementation of the Species at Risk Act. Again, part of that funding was sunsetting in March 2012. In this case, Budget 2012 gave us a three-year funding renewal for just over $21 million.
The next item relates to the health of the oceans. We received close to $4 million relating to that. Again, this program was sunsetting in March 2012, and Budget 2012 provided us with a one-year renewal on that item.
On the following item, Budget 2012 provided the department with $7.4 million as it relates to the Digby Harbour repairs. The $2.4 million is the funding the department requires for this fiscal year. The remaining $5 million has been brought over to years 2013 and 2014.
The last three items are recurring items in our estimates. Basically, the next one represents royalties we receive from intellectual property, mainly through publication items such as navigational charts and so on. The department is receiving $1.5 million from these revenues, which it can re-spend. The $66,000 relating to oil pollution, where the CCG is sometimes called in to deal with oil pollution, is a recovery of the costs they incur, which we are entitled to recover and re-spend. The $32,000 is related to real property. The department actually disposes of certain property over the year, and we have access to these revenues.
I'll close with the items on page 6. As you can see, we've just covered the voted appropriations section at the top of the page. We have the decrease of $3.6 million, which represents our first year of the strategic and operating review. In the last section, as I mentioned before, are transfers, either within the department to move money, in this case mainly from vote 1 to vote 10, grants and contributions, or money we either receive or send to other government departments. As an example, the first item is $902,000, which we receive from Environment Canada to access our scientific expertise and facilities in connection with the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes water quality agreement.
I'll leave it at that for now. If you have any questions on any of these transfers, obviously we're ready to take your questions.
Thank you.