Evidence of meeting #66 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A video is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
There is no request today in the supplementary estimates for the Royal Alberta Museum.
NDP
Jean-François Larose NDP Repentigny, QC
In the main estimates, you announced savings in the order of $17.8 million. In the supplementary estimates (B), that figure is $18.5 million. Why are the two figures different?
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
Because, as I explained earlier, the two sets of estimates are quite different. At the beginning of the year, the main estimates are announced. That is our starting point, if you like. During the year, adjustments are made and new amounts of money come in and go out. You can reconcile everything by looking at all the adjustments, but you cannot compare the two sets of estimates.
NDP
Jean-François Larose NDP Repentigny, QC
What was the impact on Canadians in terms of services and staff?
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
I answered the question about the staff earlier.
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
We chose to focus on administrative efficiency. There was no impact on Canadians.
NDP
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
We found different ways to do things. It is not just about cutting staff. We found ways to do things differently, more cheaply, and without affecting our service to Canadians.
NDP
Jean-François Larose NDP Repentigny, QC
But, in general, did the main financial impact of your cuts fall on the staff or on other things?
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
Are you talking about the reductions as announced in Budget 2012? Those staff reductions amounted to 38 person-years only.
Or are you talking about the exercise that I mentioned earlier, the very major structural deficit? The minister said that he wanted our reductions to be made in administration because he did not want to affect programs. He did not want to affect Canadians. We made all our cuts internally by increasing efficiency, so that Canadians would not be affected.
The Chair NDP Pat Martin
That concludes your five minutes. Thank you very much.
That was a good illustration of how we can cover a lot of ground when we keep our questions and answers short. That was five minutes exactly.
Next, for the Conservatives, Mike Wallace.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for coming.
I'm going to ask you some specific questions from the estimates book. You have in front of you. These are just for clarification.
First, you have a savings line on page 41 in the book: “Spending authorities available within the Vote”. In vote 1, it's $200,000. It's not that much money. Further down, you have “Internal reallocation” of resources of $10 million “to reduce the amount of new appropriations”. Can you tell me, particularly on the $10 million, what was reallocated and where it came from?
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
I'm going to let my chief financial officer answer that one because I asked him that question yesterday. It is purely an accounting adjustment.
Director General, Financial Management Branch, Department of Canadian Heritage
Yes, that's essentially it. Without trying to get too technical, the reductions, in the first part as you see in the upper part of the table, are applied against the funding that we receive. The funding that we receive is primarily—almost exclusively—vote 5 money, grants and contributions.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Right. Basically, you just didn't spend the money that was allocated in that line.
Director General, Financial Management Branch, Department of Canadian Heritage
The reductions were actually intended to come out of operating. Essentially, the money was offset against our vote 5, and then an adjustment was made to transfer it to vote 1, because they're operating reductions.
Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage
So in simple language, it's a technical accounting adjustment.
Director General, Financial Management Branch, Department of Canadian Heritage
No. That's the $10 million.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
That's the $10 million. Did it come out of one vote to another or is there a variety of votes that it came out of?
Director General, Financial Management Branch, Department of Canadian Heritage
It came out of vote 1.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
It came out of vote 1. All right. Because there's no explanation along the bottom, right...?