Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for welcoming me once again to the committee to discuss the supplementary estimates (A) 2022‑23. I am sure you have all received them.
Today, I am joined by an extraordinary team of senior Treasury Board Secretariat officials: Annie Boudreau, assistant secretary, expenditure management sector; Karen Cahill, assistant secretary and chief financial officer; and Marie‑Chantal Girard, senior assistant deputy minister, employee relations and total compensation. With us online we also have Monia Lahaie, assistant comptroller general, financial management sector; Samantha Tattersall, assistant comptroller general, acquired services and assets sector; and Paul Wagner, assistant deputy minister, strategy and transformation.
Open, transparent and accountable government means ensuring that parliamentarians and Canadians know how public funds are being invested on their behalf. This is why, in addition to estimates documents, we continue to make use of reporting tools such as GC InfoBase and the Open Government portal. These tools allow users to easily see the authorities approved by Parliament.
I would now like to turn to the supplementary estimates (A) 2022‑23.
These supplementary estimates present information on additional spending requirements which were not sufficiently defined at the time of tabling of the main estimates, or which have been subsequently refined to reflect new developments.
In these supplementary estimates, the government is asking Parliament to approve $8.8 billion in voted budgetary expenditures in 26 organizations to address issues of importance to Canadians.
The supplementary estimates also show, for information purposes, planned statutory spending of $860 million.
The major items requested in this year's supplementary estimates are:
There's $2.1 billion for the Department of Indigenous Services for costs related to compensation agreements in connection with the first nations child and family services program and Jordan's principle, and for reforms to the programs.
There's $1.4 billion for the Public Health Agency of Canada for the procurement of additional COVID-19 therapeutics to meet the needs of provincial and territorial health systems.
There's $1.2 billion for the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs for settlements.
The budget allocates $823.6 million to the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program. This program provides financial assistance to provincial and territorial governments and will be used to cover costs related to disasters over the past decade, such as the Fort McMurray, Alberta, forest fires in 2016, the New Brunswick ice storm in 2017, and the spring floods in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec in the same year.
Five hundred million in funding is earmarked for the Department of National Defence for military support to Ukraine to help defend its sovereignty.
There is $329.7 million for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to support security screening at airports across the country.
Finally, $322.5 million is provided for the Department of Transport to extend and expand the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles Program. This will encourage the purchase of more vehicle models, including vans, trucks and SUVs.
While approximately $1 billion of the planned budgetary spending presented in the supplementary estimates (A) relates to budget 2022 proposals, additional authorities to implement other budget 2022 initiatives will be sought in future supplementary estimates once implementation plans are further developed.
These estimates demonstrate our government's ongoing commitment to improving outcomes for Canadians. We are investing in public health, indigenous children and families, disaster response and recovery, and the fight against climate change. We are also supporting international partners that share our democratic values.
These efforts are all critically important, and I want to thank the members of the committee for inviting me here to discuss them further today.
We are ready to answer your questions.