Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The departments are set in their votes by the main estimates and by the allocations and the authorities that are provided to them, either through statute or by authorities established by the Treasury Board. Once those are set, they can only move money around from one vote to another by coming to the Treasury Board for approval.
So there's a fairly rigorous system of checks and balances. With the operating budget freeze, departments can move money into capital, but they cannot move money from capital into operating in order to increase their operating vote unless there's a really significant reason or justification for it.
Really, those votes, when they are established, are pretty well...I wouldn't say entirely locked in, because there is some flexibility, but there is a process whereby they have to come to the Treasury Board for approval.