Finance committee  Yes, I'd be happy to give you a general narrative on the economy. More broadly speaking, I think, starting with the global economic perspective, 2019 was a bit of a rough year. It was the slowest growth clip in the global economy in the last 10 years, since the end of the great

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I'll just make a few short opening remarks. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and honourable members of the committee. Well, you've introduced me, Nick Leswick, the assistant deputy minister of the economic and fiscal policy branch, with overall responsibility within the department fo

Public Accounts committee  I can only speak at a bureaucratic level, Mr. Chair, but no, I don't believe so.

Public Accounts committee  I think Mr. Hayes outlined all of the options very well. I think it's a very contemporary conversation. The officers have co-addressed letters to the Clerk of the Privy Council and others in the bureaucracy to advocate for their positions, so I think the options are pretty clear.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not so sure about the base—

Public Accounts committee  I don't have my statements actually in front of me, but yes, in and around, it has grown to $330ish billion.

Public Accounts committee  I can confirm, but again—

Public Accounts committee  I'm out of my depth on that one. I don't know if I could identify an organization that would do the work.

Public Accounts committee  I don't know if you're asking the right guy, to be honest.

Public Accounts committee  No, sorry, just to be specific, I meant that there was an allocation approved in budget 2018 and that we would continue to work with the office to consider risks and pressures the organization would face in the future.

Public Accounts committee  Sorry. They were granted a 10% increase in their resource base in budget 2018.

Public Accounts committee  In 2019, we continue to engage with the office. They presented the same business case. We have heard the chronology of how they presented their funding proposal. They weren't granted additional funds in budget 2019, but it wasn't as though their business case was dismissed. It's

Public Accounts committee  As I suggested in my opening remarks, the request, the business case presented by the Office of the Auditor General, was duly considered. Due diligence was performed on each of the elements of the business case. Without providing too many specifics of the advice we provided to th

Public Accounts committee  Yes, sir.