It sounds like he is doing quite a wide range....
Last time we all appeared together—I think it was a couple of weeks ago—I expressed, I'll be honest, apprehension about the manner in which we are going about achieving the desired outcome of clarity in the alignment. I specifically questioned whether we are putting the cart before the horse by moving the date, which of course will have consequences, prior to reforming the system.
Although, I have to stress again, we do support the alignment and anything that increases oversight and scrutiny, I just want to reiterate, for the record, my concerns that without requirements to table a budget by a specific date, there is no guarantee that the budget and the estimates are going to align. Estimates, of course, are paramount, so much so that we actually have Standing Orders about them and the role of the ultimate authority on government spending, which is why we are here.
Therefore, in pursuing the alignment, it seems rather inconsistent to choose to modify the variable that we say should not be changed. We want to move the estimates, but we still have the variable of the budget, which can change at any time.
Again, I just want to express my concern that we are attacking one thing when we could have a moving budget that could just throw the alignment out. I'm just questioning what obstacles to the alignment require the estimates to be moved, considering that the budget could be any time of the year.