Finance committee  Mr. Chair, one of the components of our operating budget showing a decrease is related to the establishment of the capital we both referenced earlier.

Finance committee  Right. That's right. As it relates to the impacts in future years, we are looking—

Finance committee  No. The $136 million is indeed embedded into the $3.1 billion from last year's main estimates.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, one of the challenges we have is obviously looking to meet our commitments in delivering our programs under a very tight fiscal situation. We are looking at all opportunities in the agency to become more efficient. We do that on a regular basis. At the end of the day we will be looking at possible realignments to priority areas.

Finance committee  In terms of the budget measures that were established recently in the 2010 budget, we're in the process of arriving at an estimate for those.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, when we are asked to deliver on programs on behalf of government, we do our best to arrive at the proper estimates. We are an IT-enabling organization, so some of those costs are indeed IT-focused, for systems development. We do our best to obviously build on our reputation of being able to deliver on programs on behalf of government.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, we do have the costs. We previously provided them to the committee. The costs for the tax-free savings account program were approximately $74 million to put it in place over a four-year period. That's the number we have previously provided.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, the funding that's being required is to continue to do the work we do on various fronts. In particular, over the last little while we've had some focus on aggressive tax planning and other measures. That is what you see reflected there, our ongoing efforts in ensuring compliance and fairness with the tax system.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, unfortunately, we don't have projections in terms of the added revenues as a result of harmonization, but I can commit to come back with a response.

Finance committee  It is likely that we do have the numbers somewhere. I'd have to go back and come back to you with that. I believe we do have the numbers, but I just don't have them with me. We would speak to our colleagues in Finance and provide you with those numbers.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, the reason for the decrease is likely, as the member indicated, refinement in the budget of the ombudsman when it was first established a year ago. There was a projection in terms of how much was required, and what's reflected there is probably an adjustment after one year of operation.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, unfortunately, I'm not in a position to respond to that. I'd be well positioned to speak to some of the financials, but I'm not in a position to speak to that one.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, the cost recovery mechanisms we have in the agency vary. Our biggest component is our relationship with the Canada Border Services Agency, whereby we provide ongoing support and systems integration further to the split that occurred a few years back. In addition to that, we do enter into some arrangements with certain provinces in order to undertake work in specific areas such as aggressive tax planning, for example.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, it's really a question of timing. We're in discussions with our colleagues, and in terms of the timing of the main estimates, we just haven't concluded those discussions in terms of bringing further precision to the estimates. But we do plan on being in the position in the near future to bring precision to this.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, in discussions with the Treasury Board Secretariat it was determined that it would be appropriate for us to do so from a transparency perspective to Parliament. So we're pursuing that.