Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Page, gentlemen, good morning and thank you for joining us again today.
Before I ask you some questions, just like my colleagues, I want to deplore the fact that, following the motion I presented last September, you were not given the basic information on how the reductions will be made. You even said it yourself.
Not only do I deplore it, Mr. Chair, but I find it appalling, as well. I feel that the taxpayers of Canada and Quebec are entitled to answers to their questions. They elect MPs who, to the best of their abilities, try to get answers about how their money is being managed. Unfortunately, neither the MPs nor the parliamentary budget officer, who the House has given powers to, can get answers.
This morning, Mr. Chair, you shared with us the response of the Treasury Board president to my motion, and perhaps to some of Ms. Coady's questions as well. At the time, she had made observations and presented motions.
We are a laughing stock. Listen up: we read that people are busy working on responding to our request, but really it has been two months since the question was asked. We've also been told that the information requested pertains to confidential Cabinet documents. Can you tell me what's so confidential? These people manage our money and we can't even get answers because it's confidential? Let's wake up! We let this government manage confidential documents, but it's our money. These people are paid for that with our money.
Then we read that the Treasury Board Secretariat does not have the information centralized, but the Treasury Board Secretariat gives the order to make budget cuts. They are laughing at everyone.
I wanted to bring this to the attention of my colleagues. I think I've managed to do that.
Mr. Page, I have a question for you about the Correctional Service of Canada. Of the 10 largest budget cuts, the Correctional Service of Canada must reduce their budget by $4.8 million. But we know that they will be increasing their staff by more than 4,000 full-time employees.
Can you tell me how they plan to reduce their budget by $4.8 million when they are increasing the number of people working for them? Can you give me an idea of how they will manage this?