Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister Baird, for being here today.
I can tell you without question that people in my riding are very grateful that our government has taken some steps to restrain spending and put some measures in place that will not only restrain new spending, but re-evaluate programs that have been in place for some time.
All of us here have at some level a responsibility for a budget, whether it's a family budget or that of a community board we serve on. For many years I served on a school board in my area. It's always easy to start a new program, but it's very difficult twenty years after the fact to come back and re-evaluate whether that program is still doing what we set out to do. I applaud the efforts that have been taken here.
I also noticed in the material we were given that you're committed, Mr. Baird, to having all new and existing programs undergo a systematic and rigorous examination. I'm wondering if you could outline for me in a very brief way what that process will be. Will it be annual? Will it be more frequent? What kind of process do you envision for that?