Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the minister and our departmental officials for joining us today as we study the estimates.
I want to pick up on some of the questioning that was happening around vote 40. I'm new on the committee, although I did sit on a committee about a decade ago. I just want to highlight that the PBO was very critical of vote 40 when it was brought in. In fact, he said that what the public should be worried about is the government introducing that new TB vote 40 to speed up the implementation of budget measures, and it hasn't achieved that. In fact, it is slower than it was before.
He went on to say that we should have seen a significant change in the speed at which budget measures get implemented. This suggests at least that vote 40 is not that useful in speeding up the implementation of budget measures. I'm imagining that perhaps it is why it was abandoned: it wasn't accomplishing the goal it was established for.
My question is this: What is the process now for the programs that are still waiting for approval under vote 40 in 2018 and the budget implementation votes in 2019?