Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming here today.
I want to say first that I think I speak on behalf of my colleagues here when I say we're all in favour of identifying areas for increasing efficiencies in government expenditure. This exercise is done on an annual basis by the government, regardless of who's in power, and public servants offer a lot of assistance in identifying those areas. That's what taxpayers expect. That's what Canadians expect. So it's important that we keep our eyes focused on identifying those areas.
The concern that we have—or that I have, at least—is that some of those areas that were cut as part of this announcement appeared to many of us to be working. For example, in my riding, I have close to three dozen students, youths, who have received summer placements through the youth career program. It has become really difficult for us, especially for me, to explain to my constituents why that program is not going to continue anymore.
So let me get to my question. First, I'm interested in knowing if any of those cuts had been identified previously as part of this annual review that the government and public service go through.