Government Operations committee  No. I will just be very clear here. Allocations from vote 40 can be horizontal items if we are advancing money for the same budget item to a number of different departments.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. McCauley. Vote 5 exists, as the committee knows, to allocate funding to departments in advance of supply. In those cases where departments have existing cash authorities, they won't need the vote—

Government Operations committee  To my recollection, the Department of National Defence is the largest property owner in Canada. It has testing facilities, bases and depots across the country. The funds being sought in these supplementary estimates—some $282 million—cover a range of capital projects in the department.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I'm just checking my notes on this one. Shared Services Canada, as we know, provides the physical infrastructure backbone for government departments. In this particular case, it's seeking operating and capital expenditures to provide core IT services, including systems overseas.

Government Operations committee  Right. I'll defer to—

Government Operations committee  Madam Yip, that's a very interesting question because it's one of the challenges that we're grappling with now with regard to InfoBase. Government is organized vertically, so we have departments. We have the Department of Infrastructure. We have the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's been my pleasure to represent Treasury Board and to serve this committee. I very much look forward to presenting my final supplementary estimates.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, again. The president, in his opening remarks, provided a broad overview of the supplementary estimates and the major items therein. There has been a PowerPoint presentation circulated to committee members. I simply want to take a very few minutes to speak to where we are in the supply process.

Government Operations committee  When it is sold, we will either make money or lose money on that transaction, and that will be recorded in the underlying statements of the Government of Canada.

Government Operations committee  In the estimates document, at the front end, you'll see that we break out spending by budgetary voted and statutory, and non-budgetary voted and statutory. Non-budgetary items are those items that go to the bottom line of the Government of Canada. They affect the underlying composition of our assets—loans, recoveries, investments and advances.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Minister. Thanks for the question, Mr. Peterson. As the minister says, the results policy is aimed at helping parliamentarians understand how programs fit with the broader mandate and objectives of the department and the specific indicators that will be used to measure progress.

Government Operations committee  There are two elements to the amounts being brought forward for the Champlain Bridge in the supplementary estimates (A). The first is a settlement agreement that was announced by the Government of Canada back in April as a result of negotiations with the builder of the bridge, Signature on the Saint Lawrence, to cover the transport of particularly large pieces of steel and bridge structure.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.

Government Operations committee  Estimates provide up-to amount authority. With this vote, we have the ability to allocate up to $7 billion, if departments come forward with their submissions. At this time, we are approaching halfway in terms of allocations of that vote, and we will continue to update parliamentarians and Canadians monthly on our progress.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Mr. MacGregor. As the minister noted, the intention of vote 40 was to provide more and better information to parliamentarians so that they understood how the budget was being implemented. We had a budget delivered by the Department of Finance at the end of February, and the main estimates, delivered April 16, were the first opportunity to present budget requirements to Parliament.