Government Operations committee  But to answer your latter question, yes, the Treasury Board vote 35 central fund can be used for new or existing top-ups as needed. It has that flexibility, and that's important in helping to ensure that money does flow quickly.

Government Operations committee  For existing programs, if they are the main focus, the programs of say HRSDC, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, or other large departments—

Government Operations committee  —they've already tabled their reports on plans and priorities for the current fiscal year 2009-10. So you will see a fair amount of information in their reports on existing programs and on the plans for those programs. You could also refer back to how they did in the previous year by looking at their performance reports.

Government Operations committee  This can also be a long story. I'll try not to make it too long, and my colleagues may want to also join in, because they're also involved in this part of the process. We see things at Treasury Board after policy approval. We see something when it's essentially a business plan, a submission to the board for funding.

Government Operations committee  That's correct.

Government Operations committee  That's right.

Government Operations committee  Just to go back to something I might have said before, the items that are going for the $3-billion central vote are treated the same way as supplementary estimates A items, so the same due diligence is applied. We need the policy authority, established by Treasury Board ministers, for those items before they can be funded through the central vote or through supplementary estimates.

Government Operations committee  I'm afraid that's more in our terrain as well than in the Privy Council Office's. In general, the Treasury Board is responsible for the policies on project approval and for contracting the big policies. Departments have delegated authority to provide those projects and contracts.

Government Operations committee  No, no. Again, the funding provided through Treasury Board vote 35 or the Budget Implementation Act for a particular program then sets the chain of events in action. So under a particular program the department will determine who is eligible, how the funding would work for a particular project, whether there's cost sharing, the reporting, and all aspects of that.

Government Operations committee  Could I perhaps address...?

Government Operations committee  I will confine myself to vote 35. We are monitoring all of the budget implementation, including vote 35. What Mr. Forbes was saying does apply to vote 35 as well. We are monitoring it closely. I would suggest, though, that if you really want to know the progress on an individual item that has received funding through vote 35, the department is the best place to provide that information.

Government Operations committee  Of course there will be internal due diligence, internal audit. There will be external due diligence, with the Auditor General. All of those due diligence requirements are being met.

Government Operations committee  This mechanism, again, is an allocation mechanism. That is, it requires that any funds from this central vote be allocated by the end of June. It does not require.... One would hope, certainly, and it was created for this purpose, that a great deal of that spending would occur right away.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Martin, this is the procedure we follow with virtually all central funds.

Government Operations committee  Indeed, this is unique--