To my mind, that makes the work of parliamentarians all the more difficult. We have to work with even greater zeal to find the proof required.
It is obvious that you do an enormous amount of work, and we are very grateful to you. It allows us to help the constituents we represent. However, in spite of all our efforts and all our good intentions—and I am talking about all parties—we cannot kid ourselves that we go through the estimates with a fine tooth comb.
There was a time, not so long ago, when public service managers had to state virtually every year how much money they would require. I do not remember what the process was called in French, but I think it was called zero-base budgeting in English.
Am I right in thinking that such practices are no longer used? There is no rationalization. Managers no longer provide a justification of their expenditures. They no longer have to describe the programs they manage on behalf of the organization or prove that, in order to meet government priorities, they need such and such an amount of money. Is that correct?