Thank you.
I thank the members of the Auditor General's office and the Treasury Board Secretariat. It's nice to meet you all for the first time.
In fact, I was newly elected to the House of Commons this past October and it's my second committee meeting. I'm very impressed by the proceedings, and I thank my committee members for their indulgence. You've already had a very long day.
I just want to qualify that I have an MBA, but I am not an accountant, so I need some indulgence there too.
I want to better understand how the financial reporting works. I just bring your attention to page 1.3 of volume 1 of the public accounts, to the financial highlights there.
It just seems to me that the government is understating their projected revenues. Of course, in my riding of Mississauga—Streetsville, we would be concerned about that for program funding. For instance, you see that between the budgeted and the actual revenues for 2007-2008, there seems to be a $6.5 billion gap. Does that mean there could have been an additional $6.5 billion that could have been invested in things like social programs for the vulnerable, or infrastructure for cities—my city, in particular, Mississauga, has great infrastructure funding needs, and a large deficit—or for the Public Health Agency of Canada, or affordable housing and transportation?
So what does that gap represent?