Thank you very much.
First off, we do need help from this committee to do a proper analysis. That is probably the most important point I could make today. To get the committee's support to do this analysis going forward would be fundamental for us to do our job so we can come forward in the fall to provide a kind of risk and impact assessment on the spending freeze, both for 2010 and in future years. In addition to the operational freeze of this year, we have freezes in the following two years, plus we have the government looking for administrative savings.
As I said, I don't think there is fiscal consolidation without some pain. That is true not only in Canada but in other countries. In our own case, it is probably true that we have seen a lot of spending. We've seen direct program spending growth over the past 10 years--well over 6%. With the big stimulus package we have in place for 2009-10 and 2010-11, we know there is a lot of money in the system, and it wouldn't be surprising if some of that money does lapse. We probably will see a lapse in 2009-10. We'll probably also see not an insignificant lapse in 2010-11. That's why we've chosen to look at the infrastructure program in more detail, where we think there is a higher risk of a lapse of moneys.
More focused on the operational side, given that there is a lot of money in the system for 2010-11, it might be possible that there will not be significant pain in 2011 in terms of employment or other operational impacts.
Still, we cannot do a proper assessment unless we get access to information. We've outlined in the PowerPoint presentation the types of information we could look at. We need reference levels that are planned, not only for this year but for the next five years, including all the policy approvals that were in Budget 2010. We need that broken down by operating and non-operating on a departmental basis as well.
With that information we could start, at a high level, to look at what the impact of an operational freeze would be. Also, we need the FTEs, the full-time equivalents, for those departments so we can do that assessment.
Again, we need help from this committee to do the work.