Thank you very much.
When I hear the report being quoted like that, I think an explanation is warranted because it far from being clear when read like that.
When the report says there are structural discrepancies between actual and planned spending—and the same thing applies to the number of people employed in the department—, that is because the departments table their departmental plan before the start of the year. Since the budget is usually tabled after the plan, there are often surprises and the departments need additional funds for spending that was not planned when they tabled their plan.
The government offers a wide range of services for indigenous, Inuit and Métis persons. As a result, the initial plan is often changed to reflect new priorities or additional investments that announced in the budget or outside the budget, such as during the fall economic update or in separate announcements. That is what we were referring to in the report when we used that phrase which, I admit, is not very clear.