Finance committee  I wasn't listening. Pardon me.

Finance committee  I believe I understand your question. It is crucially important to respond to the demands of our economy now. If budgetary measures could have been taken earlier, that might have had a positive impact on our economy.

Finance committee  We don't have that handy, but we'll get you the number very shortly. Let me add that in what we have presented in our tables today on nominal GDP we've both shown the percentage changes, shown what was put in quite wisely by the government—a prudence factor, which we've identified—and shown it in absolute dollar terms in our budgetary table.

Finance committee  First I'll answer the questions, then perhaps Mr. Askari and Mr. Matier can add information. For the numbers that were released today we did not, as we said, have time to do a model-based fiscal projection based on the changed economic numbers, so we used sensitivities. We have detailed sensitivities that we can look at: if the unemployment rate changes, or if GNP changes, what the impact on unemployment insurance is, or what the impact is on tax bases.

Finance committee  Sure. I'll address your earlier points about the websites and the information request and then I'll talk about the economic question. First, I think the government should be applauded for the kind of transparency that we saw in the first trimester report, and particularly on the aspect of the report that went through and showed how the authorities are being updated so the money could flow.

Finance committee  Information for all those measures has been provided again today, sir. So we're providing measures for the first half of the year, GDP, GNP, and GDI, gross domestic income, on a real basis.

Finance committee  For the second quarterly report? We have a detailed report available on our website now. The tables are so detailed that we didn't photocopy them today because I think it would have been a distraction. But we do have ideas on what the level of detail could be. We were impressed with the level of detail that was provided in chapter 4 of the quarterly report.

Finance committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Laforest. I'll start by talking about the problem concerning my budget. As a result of budget restrictions, the PBO will have to— We have to let go, effectively, some of the staff that we have right now. It is absolutely necessary to obtain a permanent resolution for our budget.

Finance committee  If an agreement was reached to change and enrich the employment insurance program, that would indeed be an example of stimulus. I'm not very comfortable talking about the various options in the current context. I'm much more comfortable talking about economic forecasts. With regard to employment, there is a major difference between the economic forecasts in the budget and our current forecasts.

Finance committee  Mr. Laforest, when I had an opportunity to meet with the President of the Treasury Board and the Minister of Finance, I did make the point that I thought it was absolutely necessary that a list be provided to parliamentarians on how vote 35 would be used. As I noted earlier, we would be willing to provide a due diligence on Treasury Board Secretariat's risk assessment as they provide it, but we would need access to information.

Finance committee  It's a record, sir.

Finance committee  It's a combination effort. We have surveyed eight private sector forecasters for 2009 and 2010 and the numbers we're presenting for the first two quarters reflect the monitoring we've done. We will be releasing a document early next week that will detail exactly what we expect for the first and second quarters.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. McCallum, for the Liberal Party's support for the PBO budget issue. We too would like to get it rectified as soon as possible to help us move and provide quality services to you in the future. In terms of what we can do on the reporting side, what we released today and will be made available on our website, we've updated our detailed monitoring tables, both on the economic side and on the fiscal side.

Finance committee  In terms of how the money will flow, I should say in answer to your earlier question what officials we have met with recently. I have met with Minister Flaherty and Minister Toews. We talked about a role the PBO could potentially play in terms of the implementation framework and even potentially looking at risk assessments on some of these programs in terms of getting the money out the door.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I may, I will introduce our panel. Mr. Sahir Khan is our assistant parliamentary budget officer for expenditure and revenue analysis. Mostafa Askari is our assistant parliamentary budget officer for economic and fiscal analysis, and Mr. Chris Matier is our senior director for economic and fiscal analysis.