Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question.
When you look at the RPP, report on plans and priorities, you see that for the accommodation program for 2015-16 we are looking at $2.1 billion, in comparison with year-end spending of $2.2 billion. It's fairly stable.
There are increases and decreases, however, over the past few years, that I would like to cover. The most important thing in this plan is the trend over the next few years.
Over the past four years there was an increase of $164 million, as per the RPP, primarily because of parliamentary precinct rehabilitation, which went from $200 million to $384 million. That's an increase of $185 million. Also, there is the addition of Cape Breton operations, which were transferred to PWGSC in 2014-15; that accounts for $40 million.
These increases over the past four years were offset or reduced by the savings, which are referred to as “Budget 2012 saving commitment”, which account for $74 million. Over the last four years this accounts for a $164 million increase. In summary, it's because of parliamentary precinct work.
Moving forward, what is important to note for the real property portfolio is that there are some changes in engineering assets, to start with. Our working engineering assets are going to decrease by $53 million, not because of unfunded projects but because some projects are coming to a conclusion and others are starting. The decrease in engineering assets accounts for $53 million; that item is going from $73 million to $20 million.
The second item of note is parliamentary precinct rehabilitation. The work is changing by about $51 million less. Again, this is not a decrease in funding because of budget reduction, but just of cash flow, because some projects are just starting and some are ending.
Last, the item important to note is that there are additional reductions of $49 million. The real property portfolio is going to be saving $124 million by 2017-18, up from the existing $74 million that we have in current estimates.
In summary, this explains the reduction of $210 million.