Good morning, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to meet with the members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. I am accompanied by Jean-Philippe Caron, Director of Security Operations. My introductory comments pertain to the 2010-2011 supplementary estimates (B) for the Privy Council Office. As we have several distinct items, I will speak to these without further preamble.
PCO is requesting a net amount of $1.4 million which is comprised of five specific items. The first request in the amount of $2.9 million is to enhance security to focus exclusively on the highest priority elements directly related to the security of the department, particularly the Langevin Block, which houses the office of the PCO and the Prime Minister's Office.
The purpose of the proposed funding is to upgrade the current security infrastructure relative to the safety and protection of personnel, information and assets.
The second and third requests, in the amount of $0.8 million, are for the completion of activities of the commission of inquiry into the investigation of the bombing of Air India Flight 182, which represents $0.6 million; and the commission of inquiry into certain allegations respecting business and financial dealings between Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, which represents $0.2 million. The funds have been reprofiled or transferred from 2009-10, since expenses from the production of the final report, which were originally planned and funded for in 2009-10, were deferred to 2010-11. The funding comes from the commission's 2009-10 surpluses.
The fourth item is a permanent budget reduction of $1.6 million. On the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the Treasury Board approved amendments to the budgets for the offices of ministers and ministers of state, effective April 1, 2010, and for future years. The budgets were reduced accordingly for the President of the Queen's Privy Council and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, the leader of the government in the House of Commons, the leader of the government in the Senate, the minister of state for democratic reform, and the minister of state and chief government whip. The total ongoing reduction in PCO's reference levels is $1.6 million.
The last item is also a budget reduction of $0.7 million in PCO's reference levels due to measures announced in Budget 2010. In order to control the size and operations of the federal government, departments are not funded for the 2010-2011 salary increases resulting from collective agreements. Since PCO had already received funding for wage and salary increases for 2010-2011 which were included in the 2010-2011 main estimates, Treasury Board has established a frozen allotment to reduce PCO's reference levels.
In closing, I would like to thank you for giving me this time to inform you of the ongoing initiatives in the 2010-11 supplementary estimates (B). We will be pleased to respond to your questions.