Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our esteemed witnesses for appearing before us.
I want to initiate a discussion about two statutory programs that are providing support to seniors. Looking at the public accounts, not just from this year but from several years, there is reporting of some quite significant budget variations in old age security payments and guaranteed income supplement payments. In fact, the department has quite often overbudgeted for them in the main estimates, and then in its reporting in the public accounts over the last number of years there is a balance that they have been able to give back to the consolidated revenue fund or it is to be spent in other parts of the department.
Is anyone at the table qualified to provide me with information as to whether it is unusual for a statutory program, where the payments should, I think, be considered to be somewhat predictable—given mortality rates, past usage, and other things—to have a wide variation in estimates budgeting versus final reconciliation through the public accounts?