Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for St. Albert raised a point of order yesterday, March 18, on the supplementary estimates. His comments provided the answer to the issue he raised in the point of order of whether there was statutory authority for the expenditures in question. He indicated that section 12 of the Revolving Funds Act states:
The provisions of this Act may be amended or repealed by an appropriation act.
The government is in no way attempting to legislate through the estimates process. The Revolving Funds Act for the optional services revolving fund sets a maximum limit of $200 million under section 5.3.
The government, through the supply process, sets appropriate limits within the amount authorized. Section 12 states that the provisions of the act may be amended or repealed by an appropriation act. We have several precedents in this regard.
In the Supplementary Estimates (A), 1996-97, the aggregate of expenditures was increased from $100 million to $200 million through vote 17a.
In Supplementary Estimates (B), 1999-2000, an adjustment was made to the limits in the Government Telecommunications and Informatics Services revolving fund by reducing the amount from $64 million to $45 million.
This request does not seek to extend or exceed a sum of money to be paid out. Therefore, in our view, this request is consistent with Speaker Jerome's ruling in 1977. On that basis alone, this request is completely within the legislative authority established by the Revolving Funds Act as passed by parliament.
The same argument applies to votes 7b, 8b and 9b included in this point of order.
Since Speaker Jerome's ruling, we have acted this way on many occasions and this approach has been accepted by successive Speakers.