Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll carry on.
MacPhie & Company is a professional services firm that specializes in strategic planning and communications. Yes, our firm is small, but we compensate for what we don't have in the number of staff members through the talents of the professionals on our team and through the passion for our client engagements. Also, we just plain work hard.
Our company has grown quickly and we have served clients in telecommunications firms, high-tech companies, health care organizations, financial services, engineering companies, advertising agencies, national charities, the tourism industry, management consulting firms, industry associations, the energy sector, and all levels of government.
Mr. Chairman and committee members, the budget process is time-consuming. It forces you up an incredibly steep learning curve in terms of content knowledge, and it requires a blend of congenial teamwork and unrelenting focus on the task at hand.
Reflecting upon other federal budgets, veterans of the Department of Finance said that Budget 2007 was one of the largest budgets in recent memory in terms of the number of pages and supplementary materials. Over the course of our work on Budget 2007, my colleague and I worked for over 800 hours. There were few, if any, days off. Working closely with the Department of Finance and the minister's office, our work included, but was not limited to, developing a comprehensive communications strategy and editing communications products, including the budget plan, the budget fanfolds, video scripts for the Department of Finance, the briefing book, and chapter highlights. It involved drafting the budget speech. It involved developing messages and strategic approaches to budget communications; drafting a speech strategy for the minister's budget speech; managing the timelines and critical path of key budget-related communications; providing creative suggestions, counsel, and planning related to pre- and post-budget events; acting as liaison between the minister's office and the Department of Finance for budget-related communications products; coordinating revisions to communications materials from the minister's office to the Department of Finance; attending detailed budget page-turner meetings, which involved going page-by-page through the budget plan, the briefing book, and fiscal-balance materials; developing and conducting budget lock-up presentations for cabinet ministers and government caucus staff; attending pre-budget speech and media training and practice sessions with the minister; and fact-checking communications materials for accuracy and consistency.
This is but a sampling of the work we were asked to complete as part of the Budget 2007 process.
There has been some talk, both in the House of Commons and in the media, that MacPhie & Company was involved with writing the 2007 budget speech. That's true, but as I have just demonstrated, helping with the budget speech itself was but a small part of the work we delivered. Working closely with the minister, his office, and the Department of Finance, we worked hard to build a speech that would clearly outline the key themes of the budget and inspire Canadians to believe in themselves and in their country.
We are very proud of the work we did related to Budget 2007. The taxpayers of Canada received value for money. We delivered our work professionally and within a very short timeframe.
I must add that we were extremely impressed with the level of dedication, professionalism, and passion that we found among staff working within the Department of Finance and in the minister's office. These are hard-working people who, like us, truly went above and beyond the call to deliver the federal budget. It was our pleasure to work with them.
Honourable francophone members of the committee, I would ask for your indulgence in allowing me to respond to your questions in English, my mother tongue.
The value of the professional service we provided greatly exceeded the amount charged to the Department of Finance for those services. Furthermore, we incurred nearly $14,000 in expenses related to work on Budget 2007. Not one dime of those expenses was charged back to the Department of Finance.
Thank you very much.