Government Operations committee  There is no other direction, except, if I may, to say there are no restrictions on hiring--

Government Operations committee  But that is important.

Government Operations committee  And the collective bargaining and the wages negotiated within that are to be paid according to what has been negotiated within the envelope.

Government Operations committee  I will ask my colleague, Mr. Smith, to answer that for you, Madam Chair, if that's okay.

Government Operations committee  I'd have to say, Madam Chair, one of the elements is that while the recession hit Canada, it did not do so in the same way or fashion as in other countries. In terms of the financial position and the regulatory position of our own financial institutions, if I can put it that way, we didn't have the same impact.

Government Operations committee  If I may, Madam Chair, the biggest amount of savings will come from the freezing of operating budgets of departments. There is, as indicated in the budget documents, about $1.8 billion of foregone expenditure that is in fact going to contribute to the reduction of the deficit. That will in fact come from departments having to manage within their operating envelopes and making choices, improving efficiencies, reorganizing their activities, not filling all of the positions that come from attrition, changing and focusing the hiring, because there is no hiring freeze--in fact, hiring will continue in the federal government, targeting the competencies we need.

Government Operations committee  The major amount I think that's attributed to that is there's a reduction of $1.8 billion for the freezing of operating budgets, and then the additional reductions come from reductions, for example, I believe from National Defence in terms of close to a billion dollars. Then a certain amount comes from the international assistance envelope, which is also capped at an expenditure of $5 billion, but the automatic increases that had been planned will no longer be provided.

Government Operations committee  That's right. We will do so, if necessary, to fund statutory and parental leave as well as retirement. However, this depends on the requests made by the departments under the central vote.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Madam Chair, I would say that it depends on the type of activity. For example, for the implementation of the economic action plan, Service Canada, which reports to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, had to increase its staff fairly quickly, for the very reason that it had to meet the growing demand on the part of people who were unfortunately laid off and who wanted access to employment insurance benefits or training, as well as requests from employers who wanted access to transitional measures.This department succeeded in increasing its staff fairly quickly, but that was so it could cope with a fairly major increase in workload.

Government Operations committee  The salaries of exempt staff belonging to ministers' officers are paid out of the departments' operating budgets. The budget allocated to a minister's office is funded by the operating budget. You referred to compensation paid in the case of parental leave, among others. These people have the same entitlements as public servants, under the regulations and working conditions.

Government Operations committee  For now, we have allocated the same amount for 2010-2011 as is allocated each year, that is, $500 million. If we see that there are more job terminations or people taking leave, then adjustments will have to be made as part of supplementary budgets. This amount has remained stable according to forecasts.

Government Operations committee  For the estimates, yes.

Government Operations committee  No, no. It's professional services.

Government Operations committee  It could also be science. There is a long list of what we call standard objects.

Government Operations committee  Yes, page by page.