I'll start.
Thank you for the question.
On the Governor General's special warrants, as Bill Matthews mentioned, when Parliament was prorogued, the supplementary estimates and the appropriations bill for the last supply period had not been voted. So to close off the fiscal year, we worked with departments and organizations in seeking to obtain what specifically they required to meet their obligations.
Essentially, the warrants operate on a requirement and an obligation. What are the government's obligations on an expenditure basis? We require attestation on the part of CFOs and on the part of ministers. We also do a validation at the secretariat to make sure that, in fact, the obligation is a true obligation. The requirements have to be met.
Once we receive the attestation, the first wave exhausts whatever resources, or authorities to expend and funds to expend, are in existing votes. We deplete the votes entirely, and then we seek approval for those expenditures that cannot be covered within existing resources. We seek authority from the Governor General, literally, to access the consolidated revenue fund.
All of this is predicated, first, on a requirement or obligation on the part of the government to make an expenditure; second, on an attestation on behalf of the minister that the expenditure is indeed required; and third, on a challenge function within the secretariat to make sure that those expenditures are indeed matched against obligations. We then require Governor-in-Council approval to go to the Governor General for him to allow that withdrawal.
We also report on the GGSWs, as they're so fondly known, to Parliament—as we did when Parliament resumed. I think it is within 30 days or 15 days of Parliament's resumption that we actually have to table in the House of Commons the expenditures and the uses of the warrants.