Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Since my colleagues and I have not had the opportunity to hear from Mr. Moloney, I will repeat my question for him. I would first like to know whether the Treasury Board Secretariat held discussions with Finance Department officials. When this exercise got under way, who decided what: did the government have to come up with a certain level of cuts?

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I have a point of order.

Government Operations committee  I hope that this discussion is at an end. I tried to be patient, but this has nothing to do with the item on our agenda. I am happy to be accommodating, but we have two meetings on this issue and not four.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Baird, you are telling us that you needed to make some cuts. I did not say otherwise. And I did not say that you had cut everything. But why did only 25% involve government operations? You talked about Treasury Board. Over a 5-year period, from 2000 to around 2005, the Treasury Board's budget increased by 26%.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Distinguished guests, as you know, we are here because of a Bloc québécois' motion that was adopted by the committee. I am pleased that all of my colleagues around this table agree that it is important for us to consider the approximately $1billion in budget cuts that will be taking effect over the next two years.

Government Operations committee  Do you have any questions?

Government Operations committee  Thank you.

Government Operations committee  Do you know what the implications are? In the course of your career, you have surely dealt with businesses or organizations that have made this type of change. Mr. Alghabra, I realize that we have completed half the work, but in order to get through the second half, resulting in full implementation, will it be possible, in spite of the problems associated with this, to avoid running into major issues?

Government Operations committee  As my colleagues already know, I know little about accounting. I am learning, though. Mr. Salole, you just said that you agree with the Auditor General that this has gone on long enough and that the Government should at least make a decision. You talked about creating a culture.

Government Operations committee  I am making this proposal with a very open mind. I also agree that, for the sake of our Chair and our Clerk, the witness appearances be spread out over two meetings. However, I would hope that the meetings could occur in a relatively short span of time. Thank you.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I believe you have all received a copy of my motion, which reads as follows: Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(c), that the Committee devote the next two meetings to a review of the detailed budget cuts announced by the Treasury Board on September 25, 2006.

Government Operations committee  Pardon me, Madam Chair. Mr. Albrecht, when someone accuses me... I would like to respond, if you don't mind. No one was in fact aware of it until I came down the hall at five minutes to the hour, at which point I provided copies to the clerk. So, before you make accusations, I would kindly ask that you check to see whether those allegations are founded.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Lemaire. Ms. Barrados, my next question has to do with the motion I tabled with my colleagues earlier. I would like to talk about recent cuts that were announced on September 25. Is the Public Service Commission of Canada directly or indirectly affected, for reasons of efficiency or otherwise, by the $1 billion worth of cuts announced over a two-year period?

Government Operations committee  When the Government says it can predict that between 300 and 400 jobs are going to disappear, we're obviously talking about targeted jobs. There won't be any indirect effect on you there either. These are highly targeted jobs at Health Canada, Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts or Natural Resources.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Barrados, I want to take this opportunity to come back to my two previous questions. I obviously talked too much and used almost all the time allocated, which meant that you didn't have a chance to answer. Ms. Barrados, I asked you and your colleagues a question earlier about pay officers.