Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I think it could be that what the member is expressing is an isolated case. When we accumulate all the costs for all the members in the House, we find that the budget has remained static since at least 2009-10, which was the last time we topped

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll have to get back to you exactly on that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I've been before, sir, for supplementaries.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you kindly, Mr. Chair. As the clerk said, under the supplementary estimates, we will be reducing House budgets in the years ahead, in accordance with the program endorsed by the BIE, the Board of Internal Economy. The program takes into account the estimates over the next

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As of the end of the third year, the reductions will be in the range of $30 million, and that's for each year. We are giving ourselves three years to put the program in place, and the reductions will gradually amount to $30 million as of the third year.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The thinking was that the spouses would not be allowed to use the flight passes because the flight passes have to be bought in booklets of ten. Members are responsible if those ten segments are not used. In a way, to protect members from unnecessary expense, it was decided by the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Clerk, Mr. Speaker. How it works is Revenue Canada sets out certain limits on the pension that a person can receive, that can be paid to an individual. When you exceed those limits, basically a separate pension plan is created. The funding for those two accounts

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That pertains principally to leases. Rentals are not necessarily rental property, but any leases that we would have on equipment--photocopiers, office equipment, and those types of things.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, we do.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We do, but those leases are administered through Public Works and Government Services Canada, so they wouldn't be reflected in the main estimates of the House. Those would be in the main estimates of that particular department. But these would be rental payments that are paid for

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Treasury Board, as the administrator and plan sponsor for the account, looks after establishing contribution rates and funding requirements for the particular plan. We anticipate that as those changes come into effect and as the demographic changes and the p

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have already started seeing savings in the budget on members' travel expenses. This item appears in a statutory appropriation because it is something allocated to members by legislation. Last year, while the House of Commons was sitting, there were savings of approximately $3

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We targeted four factors in the strategic review exercise: attrition, vacant positions or positions that we were going to eliminate through ongoing initiative reduction, operational efficiencies and budget cuts. The budget cuts were made mainly in areas where we had noted that th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. As I was saying a little bit earlier, Mr. Chair, in this year's $3.629 million that we're reducing, the bulk of that is coming through attrition, as the member pointed out, about $1.8 million—$1.752 million—is from attrition and vacant positions. Another million dol