Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Let me explain about the source of this $5,100,000.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Under normal circumstances, we had been able to cover the costs of ten percenters in the general printing budget for the House of Commons. But by virtue of increasing volume and increasing use of the ten percenter as a communication tool, we found ourselves in a deficit situation as of the end of June.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The difficulty with ten percenters is that they're not a separate item from the printing budget.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They've just taken on a life of their own in recent months, but Louis can tell you--

Health committee  I would honestly be pleased to do so. [The meeting continued in-camera.]

Health committee  First of all, we share with you the concern for the health and well-being of all our employees. This is something on which we have a joint occupational safety and health committee. We work in partnership with the employees on these issues. But again, there, we view this as a partnership with the employee.

Health committee  Madam Chair, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to explain things. As I know your time is very short, I just want to say that if any members want to follow up on this by coming to see me and talking more about specifics, I'd be happy to sit down with anyone.

Health committee  With regard to something like closing the Centre Block, we will be very careful to keep in contact with the local regional health authority. If at some point they recommend against gatherings, we would cancel the tours, for example. I think the business of cancelling people coming into the galleries would have to be taken only in fairly serious circumstances because of the openness of Parliament.

Health committee  I would say that in terms of legislatures we are ahead of the game, but with a lot of my Commonwealth colleagues, resources are problematic. We are fortunate to have the resources we can devote to people working on a business continuity plan. They are so short of resources that basically one person has to do many, many things.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  Precisely.

Health committee  If you have fewer interpreters available, you might be able to work fewer hours. Maybe you'd just have to make the hours more productive.

Health committee  I really appreciate the question. Right now we're fine. We're covered for this and we have contingency funds. If we were faced with a major requirement for temporary assistance from outside agencies—I'm thinking of interpreters or translators—then we could go forward and ask for supplementary funds.

Health committee  Our main purpose is to support Parliament. The chamber is the heartbeat of the place—and support for it is absolutely essential to us. Support to committees comes after that, followed by support to members in their individual offices. The exact form it will take is difficult to talk about because of the hypotheticals.