Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon. I am pleased to meet with the members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Today, I am accompanied by Marc Bélisle, Executive Director of the Finance and Corporate Planning Division for the Privy Council Office.
My introductory comments pertain to the 2012-2013 supplementary estimates (A) for the PCO. There is only one item in these estimates, and it is a reprofiling request in the amount of $1.3 million for the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River from fiscal year 2011-2012 to 2012-2013.
As you may recall, the commission is led by Justice Bruce Cohen. In the last fiscal year, 2011-2012, the commission was granted money to carry out its mandate, which included the preparation of its report. That money was not used in its entirety, and, for this reason, there was a surplus at the end of the last fiscal year.
As mentioned when I last appeared before you, Commissioner Cohen was granted an extension to submit his final report. Specifically, rather than submitting it on June 30, 2012, he will submit it by September 30, 2012. This means that most of the preparation of his report will now be done in this fiscal year, and this includes costs for editing, translation, printing, and other costs related to the preparation of the report. It follows that forecasted costs for 2012-13 are now higher than anticipated, given that some of the work that was planned for the last fiscal year will now be done in this fiscal year. Therefore, the commissioner is asking for access to a portion of the commission's surplus from the last fiscal year, in the amount of $1.3 million, in order to fund expenditures that are now planned for 2012-13 and to allow him to complete his mandate.
The commission's total budget for 2012-13 is in the amount of $2.7 million, which includes the funding sought in the 2012-13 main estimates and these supplementary estimates (A). The commissioner has stated that he will complete the commission's mandate within its global budget of $26.4 million over four fiscal years.
On a different matter, I would like to take this opportunity, if I may, to correct the record on one item discussed before you on April 30, 2012, when we appeared on PCO's 2012-13 main estimates. At that time, we were asked about Shared Services Canada and if there would be a duplication of technical procedures in the management of e-mails, and therefore an increase in cost instead of a reduction.
In my response, I correctly explained that would not be the case, because not only does PCO deliver IT services in a cost-effective manner, but we were transferring responsibility for all e-mails to Shared Services Canada, except for top-secret communications. However, I later misspoke, and said that PCO will continue looking after e-mails in both the secret as well as the top secret categories. Therefore, I wish to correct the record by stating that the management of e-mail, data centres, and networks used in the processing and storage of information for all data at the secret level and below have been transferred to Shared Services Canada. PCO no longer manages secret communications. Services for top secret communications, for example, Foreign Affairs, and defence and security matters, are used by a restricted subset of PCO and are kept separate. These top secret communications have not been transferred to Shared Services Canada but will continue to be managed by PCO.
In closing, I would like to thank you for giving me a few minutes to inform you of the ongoing initiative in the 2012-2013 supplementary estimates (A).
We will be pleased to answer your questions.