Government Operations committee  In my opinion, I think they will be the same as every other organization, where they will have to find strategies in order to continue to provide service. Whether you're in the PMO, PCO, or Veterans Affairs, people will have to figure out how best to be able to serve their client

Government Operations committee  I believe that when the Prime Minister's Office did increase their budget, they did explain that they had done so in order to have a larger communications staff in order to help the Prime Minister and the ministers to communicate with Canadians, and to a lesser extent there was a

Government Operations committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to meet with the members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. I am accompanied by Mr. Bill Pentney, Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Plans and Consultations. My introductory comments pertain to the 2010-11 sup

Government Operations committee  I can't.

Government Operations committee  I'm not aware of who would have the responsibility for that, even inside PCO. I can certainly inquire.

Government Operations committee  I expect it's a shared responsibility between Labour Canada and the Department of Finance. I suspect there are a number of departments, as well as Treasury Board, that are implicated. I'm just not sure who has the single accountability for rolling it up.

Government Operations committee  It was $1.4 million net.

Government Operations committee  What you are asking me is the difference in program activity (A), which is the support to the Prime Minister. There was a $13 million increase in that year over year in the main estimates. And $6.4 million of that was for chronic funding pressures. A portion of that was directly

Government Operations committee  It wouldn't be the Privy Council who is responsible for that. That's actually taken care of by the Treasury Board.

Government Operations committee  No, I'm sorry, I can't.

Government Operations committee  We will certainly work with Treasury Board if there's any information we can add. We'll coordinate with them.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I will start and Jean-Philippe may want to supplement my answer. We're talking about a combination of those things. We don't perceive that there is an increased risk, but what we've been able to do over time is to reallocate within the department to ensure that we maintain

Government Operations committee  Perhaps I will take a stab at this. When we prepare our main estimates for the upcoming year, for example for 2010-11, they're done the fall before. So we don't always have all the information on collective agreements. In the past we have had to use the supplementary estimates t

Government Operations committee  That is correct. Under the Inquiries Act, if there is a commission of inquiry that is struck under the prerogative of the Prime Minister, then it is the Privy Council Office that is responsible for the commission of inquiry.

Government Operations committee  I will start. With respect to the cap on travel conferences and hospitality, we invoked inside of PCO a very rigorous process whereby we have been soliciting input from all of our secretariats and allocating within. We have managed to stay below the cap, and we do intend to con