Merci, monsieur le président.
Good morning, all members of the committee. It is an honour and a privilege to be here. Thank you for the invitation.
Today I will be presenting the House of Commons Supplementary Estimates (B) for fiscal year 2008-2009.
The proposed supplementary estimates (B) for the House of Commons total $3,981,912. I would like to stress at the outset of this discussion that all items in the House of Commons supplementary estimates (B) were previously approved by the Board of Internal Economy.
To facilitate our discussion, I will provide a brief overview of the items in the House of Commons' Supplementary Estimates (b), along three main headings: Members' and House Officers' salaries, Compensation for collective agreements; and Operational requirements.
With regard to members' and House officers' salaries, the supplementary estimates (B) allocate $1,403,000 in funding for salary adjustments in accordance with the Parliament of Canada Act. This adjustment is based on the index of the average percentage increase in base rate wages for a calendar year resulting from major settlements negotiated in the Canadian private sector. As a result, members' and House officers' salaries were increased by 3.1%, effective on April 1 of this year.
First of all, the Supplementary Estimates (B) provide $1,602,000 in funding for collective agreements for House of Commons employees. These collective agreements are for employees in the Operational Group, Technical Group, Procedural Clerks, Analysis and Reference bargaining unit and the Reporting and Text Processing Sub-group. The terms of each of the collective agreements were 2.5% per year for two years as of their effective date. There are approximately 550 employees represented by these groups, and their varied occupations include procedural clerks, editors, messengers and television technicians.
Under the theme of operational requirements, the supplementary estimates (B) provide $688,000 for information and technology needs. Funding for two projects was originally approved by the board in 2007-08. Following a change in the projects' timelines, the unused portion of the funding from 2007-08 was realigned to the supplementary estimates (B) for 2008-09 in order to complete these projects.
The first project is a computer system replacement and software upgrade for members and House officers. Funding for this project is essential, as members' and House officers' computers had reached the end of their life cycle. The project also funded the installation of the latest operating system and upgraded software for our computers.
I'd like to highlight that the Information Services group scheduled the timing of the system replacement and software upgrade for the most convenient time possible for members.
The second project is the upgrade of the House of Commons' Financial Management System. An upgrade was required in order to take advantage of the improved functionalities of the software and to help facilitate the House Administration's provision of high quality financial services to Members.
Additionally, the Board approved $298,000 for accommodation services and specialized equipment in order to support Members in fulfilling their parliamentary functions, and this amount is reflected in the Supplementary Estimates (B).
That is the conclusion of my opening remarks. The clerk and I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have arising out of these estimates.