Mr. Chair, the hon. member asked a question about estimates and the budget process. CIC's front-end costs were immediate, and for many of the other departments and agencies of government, they are able to cash-manage until the supplementary (C) and main estimates. The member is displaying a lack of understanding of the budgeting process.
One of the things we want to do as a government is not repeat the mistakes of the previous government in terms of failing to align the budget and estimates process.
The previous government, for this fiscal year, actually introduced estimates before it introduced a budget. Of course, it had to do that because it had to delay the budget until after it could do the one-time asset sale of GM shares to create an illusionary surplus on the eve of an election. However, it was still unacceptable and unaccountable to Parliament.