Government Operations Committee on Nov. 27th, 2012

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Okay. I think we can safely reschedule that. Thank you for your cooperation on those items.

We'll move to the votes.

On the supplementary estimates (B), there are a certain number of votes that are referred specifically to our committee.

I'll put the question.

Shall vote 95b under Canadian Heritage carry?

CANADIAN HERITAGE

Public Service Commission

Vote 95b—Program expenditures..........$1

(Vote 95b agreed to on division)

Shall vote 1b under Privy Council carry?

PRIVY COUNCIL

Department

Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$2,574,327

(Vote 1b agreed to on division)

Shall vote 20b under Public Works and Government Services carry?

PUBLIC WORKS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Shared Services Canada

Vote 20b—Operating expenditures..........$1

(Vote 20b agreed to on division)

I asked the clerk why there is the $1 figure.

Perhaps, Mr. Clerk, you could explain what that means. It means that it approves the transfer of funds.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard]

Yes, it's exactly as the chair just said. It is to approve the transfer of funds toward a certain organization, but these funds have already been approved by Parliament in former estimates during the current fiscal year. Basically, since Parliament needs to approve that transfer, you actually approve it in the form of a $1 figure.

So it's $1 that you approve, but actually it could hide a lot more.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Yes. It's just so we're all aware of what this means.

Next, shall vote 25b under Public Works and Government Services carry?

PUBLIC WORKS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Shared Services Canada

Vote 25b—Capital expenditures..........$1

(Vote 25b agreed to on division)

Shall votes 1b and 15b under Treasury Board carry?

TREASURY BOARD

Secretariat

Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$1

Vote 15b—Compensation Adjustments..........$83,059,327

(Votes 1b and 15b agreed to on division)

Shall the chair report the supplementary estimates (B) 2012-13 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

It's unanimous, I believe, that we shall report it.

Excellent. I want to thank colleagues and committee members for a thorough examination of the supplementary estimates (B), as referred.

I beg your pardon?

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

We're hearing Heritage after we've already voted then?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

No. The Heritage vote is the Public Service Commission aspect, the salaries piece. Look up 95b, or whatever it is, under Canadian Heritage and it will show you.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

I think it was a useful exercise, and I'm glad we invited the Department of Public Works, even though they weren't a dollar figure in the estimates, because we had a chance to look at the DPRs. There's more to the examination of the estimates than just the supplementary estimates (B) themselves. We were living up to one of the recommendations of our own report on the estimates when we invited these witnesses and gave a thorough going-over of the departmental performance review documents, which are very valuable.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Who do we have coming on Thursday for sure?

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

On Thursday....

[The Clerk]

Heritage Canada for one hour and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs for the....

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Again, the DPRs may be the documents we might want to refer to in examining Heritage, even if it is considered after the fact.

Thank you for everyone's cooperation.

The meeting is adjourned.