Government Operations Committee on April 2nd, 2009

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I think everybody would understand that. If there's been a commitment made to something specific, we understand that. If there's a time delay because of construction, it's not perfect, but we understand it. It really is a question focused on money that has been allocated. The Building Canada fund and the track record over the last couple of years is something we obviously have been hitting on. There are no such commitments, or at least we have not been informed of any specific commitments. There's just a lot of money there. So that appears to be a complete lapse.

[Chris Forbes]

In this case, with a multi-year commitment of seven years--I would go back to budget 2007, when we set the seven-year, $33 billion infrastructure commitment--certainly we're not tying those funds to the specific year in question. In other words, we won't say that if it was $500 million less than you anticipated in year one, that money is lost. That would be rolled forward. I'm just saying....

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

Rather than going into more detail, I think Ms. Hall Findlay has indicated that she may have a question at our next meeting on the issue of re-profiling.

[Chris Forbes]

Sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

It would be directed to the finance department, presumably. It might not....

[Chris Forbes]

Finance and Treasury Board Secretariat can answer that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

All right. So I think we can take it that there will be a re-profiling question coming forward on the status of re-profiling requests.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Chair, with respect, was I out of time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

No, you weren't, but I'm trying to get our business done quickly. This meeting was a planning meeting, so if you are curious about re-profiling, you have given notice. If you had another conceptual question on re-profiling.... Mr. Forbes was dealing with a lot of hypotheticals here. I wanted to pre-empt that. You still have time.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Of the Building Canada funds that were lapsed in the last fiscal year, are you able to tell me how much is open to being re-profiled?

[Chris Forbes]

The amounts that lapsed in 2007-08 would all have been profiled into 2008-09 or a subsequent year.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

So technically they haven't lapsed.

[Chris Forbes]

They haven't lapsed. It would appear, technically, as a lapse, because it was included in the estimates and not spent, but it would have been moved forward into the 2008-09 estimates or the 2009-10 estimates.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

To the chair's point, these will be questions we will be following up on in subsequent meetings.

[Chris Forbes]

Sure.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

That would do it.

Now, I have to allow one question from our researcher. It's a follow-up question to a matter raised at the committee in a previous meeting, and it has to do with coordination of the stimulus spending.

Go ahead, Ms. Scratch.

[Lydia Scratch, Committee Researcher]

Thank you.

At its February 10 appearance before this committee, the PCO stated that it was arranging a group of senior officials from the departments most involved with the stimulus spending. I was just wondering if there was a follow-up. Has the group been convened? How often is it meeting, and what sort of work is it doing?

[Tim Sargent]

I'm happy to answer that.

Indeed, we have set up a deputy-level coordination committee on budget implementation. It typically meets monthly. It includes deputies from central agencies and then the key departments involved in budget implementation.

The purpose of these meetings is to identify any problems or roadblocks that seem to have come up, and it's also an opportunity for us at this end to collect performance information, to understand what is going on, so that PCO can not only play its coordination role but also play its role in briefing the Prime Minister.

[Lydia Scratch]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

Thank you.

And who do we look to for progress on that committee at our future meetings--you, or the Privy Council Office?

[Tim Sargent]

Yes, I could speak to that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

Thank you, Mr. Sargent.

[Tim Sargent]

Or my superiors.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

Do you sit on that committee? Do you help them organize?