Thank you for the question, and it is a very good question.
As you know, the department is charged with housing the Public Service of Canada. We hold in our inventory in excess of 7.1 million square feet of office space, which we deliver through crown-owned, leased, and lease-purchased facilities. We consider these costs to be quasi-statutory. They are non-discretionary, but they do fluctuate from year to year.
If I could draw a parallel to a homeowner, these would be your heating, electricity, insurance, and tax costs. You know they are coming, you just don't know exactly what they are. The quasi-statutory request in these supplementary estimates is a practice that we have established with central agencies and it has been in place since 1991. They reflect our calculation of the actual costs.
So I would suggest, Mr. Chair, that these are costs, which we know are coming, through supplementary estimates we are able to adjust to the precise figures that are required in any given year. They cover our costs for operating and maintenance contracts, which fluctuate with labour costs, utility costs, payments in lieu of taxes, and costs associated with renovation, which change depending on which projects fall in any given year.