Through you, Mr. Chairman, to Mr. Lukiwski, as Mark was saying, the bulk of the administration budget is in salaries. In looking at the question of attrition and vacancies and what vacancies we can afford to not fill and offer up as part of the savings, we have been very mindful of not reducing the services to members.
When we talk about service transformation, some of that means that the services will be rendered in a different way. For example, the members' financial portal is one of those ways in which we're reducing the burden on everyone.
Something I have asked people to do and to continue to do is to look at services we might be providing or work we might be doing because we have always done it. Does it still need to be done? We're not in the position of departments or agencies that have programs and regular program reviews. There are different ways of doing things. One of the things, for example, is looking at moving towards a more paperless situation. That, as Mark has been saying, is quite important.
One of the things we have to be aware of—and I don't want members to have expectations that will be dashed in the end—is that when we transform work, through, for instance, things like the members' financial portal, there is an initial investment required in terms of IT, but then there is required maintenance.
Something I am doing a little bit of anticipatory fretting about is that once we come through the renovations projects on these wonderful buildings—which we are very excited about—and we come online and the Department of Public Works and Government Services hands over the keys to the Speaker, we become responsible for maintaining all of those things. For instance, we will have the swipe card security systems in offices like La Promenade Building, and all of a sudden there is an extra cost for maintenance, because it moves from their budget to ours.
Those are the kinds of things we are very mindful of, and of course we're mindful of 30 new members due to the Fair Representation Act.