Status of Women committee  Thank you. That is a lot of questions. First of all, I'm sorry if I've troubled you with my response, but we will give you the analysis. There is a very thorough analysis that looks at the relative impact of the tax cuts on the personal side, which does show this. And not to be

Status of Women committee  I've been in the government for 34 years and I've been of deputy minister rank for 19 years, but I've only been in the department for two years as deputy minister. I was there as a director 20 years ago.

Status of Women committee  I think both things count. Real dollars count, but in terms of benefiting Canadians, the relative impact of an initiative is really perhaps even more important than the absolute amount. In fact, we've published in our latest budget—which we will make available to the committee—

Status of Women committee  We've committed to put out our analysis of WITB. I will look at the tax-free savings account as well, if you wish.

Status of Women committee  No.

Status of Women committee  Oh, that sparked--

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I needed that. I was feeling really awful until I knew you weren't trained as well.

Status of Women committee  That is a very important question, and I would say that spending has increased quite substantially over the last several years in the federal government. Spending was up over 6% last year. The government has put an important priority on fiscal balance and ensuring we have restore

Status of Women committee  First of all, we're really challenged in Finance by many things, but we also have an opportunity in our processes. The budget is a process--it's a machine between September and late February to get things done--so we approach things very comprehensively. I think by connecting thi

Status of Women committee  Again, we don't have a separate--

Status of Women committee  It's an important question. We don't have a segmented effort, an analysis unit, on it, but as I mentioned, there is a very broad outreach for the minister on behalf of the government to reach out to all Canadians for ideas. To the extent that those ideas are on a list of issues f

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much for the question. I know there's more work we can do and I know it's important to be listening to people who identify new ways of getting it and working harder. I know that some colleagues behind me would like to say there are new approaches we should consid

Status of Women committee  It's important to step back and think about what the department's role is. We have an important role, but our role is to support the government. We don't go away and think of what the perfect budget is and send up a bunch of material to government saying, “Here's the budget for

Status of Women committee  It's an important point. The minister, for example, meets with all of his colleagues in cabinet on budget process; he meets with his caucus colleagues; he meets with the opposition leaders; he listens to committees like this one and like the overall finance committee, which has

Status of Women committee  So we will make this available to you, and it will be on our website for everyone to see.