Thank you, Minister.
The Governor General's special warrants are used and applied only when Parliament is dissolved for the purpose of an election and supply or appropriations have not been voted. They have to be used or they have to be put forward if there is a requirement or an obligation on the part of the government in the public interest, and a minister has to attest to the fact that they are, indeed, required.
So there were two warrant periods because the Parliament dissolved before the last period of supply could be addressed before the end of March. The first warrant period was from April 1 and then the second was from May 16. That took us for a total of 90 days. That basically covered the requirements for the government to continue to operate.
The ongoing operations of government are deemed to be a requirement or an essential activity of government to keep the government functioning during an electoral period. When these amounts are put forward to the Governor General—that's why they are called the Governor General's special warrants—and they are based on the attestation of ministers that these are required, these funds are deemed to have been allocated, provided to organizations for that period for the fiscal year. They are then subtracted from the amounts that are put forward in the appropriations bill. So while they may be included in the information or the expenditures and the allocations included in the main estimates, when the appropriations bill is tabled before Parliament, they would be net of the amounts that had been already included in the warrants. So that's how we manage during a period when supply or appropriations are not provided.