Yes.
The issue we're raising there.... Again, just by way of trying to help parliamentarians understand some of those documents, if you look at the budget, it says there's an amount of $330-something billion that would be budgeted to be spent. If you look at the main estimates to see how much is going to be voted on by Parliament, and how much of that is statutory, so already approved by Parliament, it was $270-something billion. That's a difference of $62 billion.
My starting point is that if the government is planning on spending $330 billion, there should be a very clear path to how Parliament has authorized or will authorize the spending of that $330 billion. Parliament should be authorizing all of it. Parliament is the body that authorizes the government to spend money.
Then, when I see that there's an amount that is considered statutory and an amount that's considered voted, to me, those are the only two ways that Parliament can actually approve spending. They either have to vote on it, or it has to be already built into legislation and authorized by Parliament. I would expect those two numbers to add up to the $330 billion, but they don't. They add up to $270 billion, a $62-billion difference.
There is a table in the main estimates, and I believe also in the budget, that explains what's in that $62 billion. For example, some of it was children's benefits, which is a program authorized under the Income Tax Act. If there's a piece of legislation that authorizes that program, why is it not considered statutory like all of the other statutory payments?
One thing I noticed was that even when you look at how much is statutory and how much is voted, two-thirds of the amount in the main estimates is considered to be statutory. At the end of the day, Parliament is only voting on about $110 billion of the $330 billion that is in the government's budget, which is, I would say, the reverse percentage as the provinces.
I understand that there are things like equalization at the federal level. Nevertheless, I think there are some types of payments that the federal government considers statutory that perhaps the provinces might consider to be things that need to be voted.
I'm just trying to bring all of that information to your understanding.