Let me start by saying the taxpayers expect the government to use their money wisely, and reducing the deficit requires the government to be responsible with funding.
In fact over 70% of the savings government-wide are in operational efficiencies, such as reducing travel expenses by using virtual tools such as teleconferencing, video conferencing, and virtual presence, and reducing duplication across departments by combining administrative functions like human resources, financial services, communications and IT, and replacing paper publications with online content.
We continue to find ways to save money. The questions we ask of the department are whether the programs support our core roles, whether they're effective, whether they're affordable in our current fiscal environment, whether we can deliver services more efficiently. The savings have to take into account the change in economic and fiscal circumstances. In some cases programs are simply scaled back to maintain affordability, such as in areas where industry is now better positioned to assume a greater proportion of the costs.