Government Operations committee  Certainly not, Chair.

Government Operations committee  Chair, we will endeavour to provide those numbers. I have to say with respect to the first set of numbers—the 950 and the 750 that you referred to—that is, I believe, a forecast, what we anticipate. I will not be able to provide you with numbers on which of those will be replac

Government Operations committee  We would only know whether in fact our forecast was absolutely accurate at the end of the fiscal year, but that is our current forecast. So I identified those numbers not as hard numbers but as what we anticipate to be the case, and that will give us some management flexibility.

Government Operations committee  Yes, sir.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, passing the responsibility of meeting the needs of Canadians off to the offices of MPs is in no way our policy. Canadians have a number of ways—

Government Operations committee  I said that $5.2 million was planned for next year. Actually, it's $4.1 million for this year and $5.2 million for next year. I said it once and I'll say it again: the individual amounts, particularly for conferences and travel, are one element of our budget, but it is not an ove

Government Operations committee  On the point of the recession being the time to do more, my point, and the information provided with respect to the ramping up and then the ramping down of employees, was precisely for that purpose of responding.

Government Operations committee  Yes. We work constantly with members' offices, I think very fruitfully, to manage constituents' concerns with Service Canada. But in fact we—

Government Operations committee  In fact, we recruited 3,000 temporary employees to manage the increased workload in EI. They were fully occupied. As we have seen the level of claims decline, those folks have been removed from the roles gradually and appropriately in keeping with the workload decline. The impac

Government Operations committee  Well, a few of the words are my own.

Government Operations committee  No, no. That would have been a collaborative effort between our finance and HR staff.

Government Operations committee  Deputy ministers meet in a variety of areas.

Government Operations committee  Well, it's a weekly meeting of deputy ministers.

Government Operations committee  It may refer to matters that are related to cabinet. We would discuss, Chair, everything from how we collectively manage human resources to how we improve our performance at parliamentary committees.

Government Operations committee  Chair, I think I understand what Mr. Martin is asking me, and I can only say two or three things. First, I'm very grateful that I'm not accountable for explaining the entire fiscal framework of the federal government. I can only speak to the Department of Human Resources and Skil