Mr. Speaker, in regard to part (a) of the question, the Privy Council Office, PCO, is unable to provide accurate statistics on the hours or costs of permanent full-time employees allocated to preparation of the Speech from the Throne, SFT. The PCO employees involved undertook a range of other duties in addition to preparation of the speech since initial production began in January 2010. The department does not track the person-hours dedicated to specific tasks or projects. The time and costs associated with the translation, design and revisions for the SFT by outside contractors are as follows:
Translation: 27 1/4 hours, total $ 2,302.63; Writing and editing services: 32 hours, total $2,720; Costs for initial design concepts (3+): 88 hours, total $7,875; Revisions to concepts: 24 hours, total $2,700; Treatment of thematic intro pages for the SFT booklet: 50 hours, total $2,550.
In regard to part (b) of the question, 6,000 copies of the speech were printed. The total cost was $21,505.38. The company contracted for printing and distributing the SFT was Lowe-Martin Company Inc. from Ottawa, Ontario.
In regard to part (c) of the question, the cost for distributing the SFT was $4,145.60.