Public Accounts committee  No.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. Overall, our expenses were $14,000, and we paid for those expenses out of our own pocket. To be clear, our actual invoice for fees was, I believe, $115,500. The rest was GST on top of our fee, so it actually was $115,000.

Public Accounts committee  I would say this. In general terms, over any given year, our billings from the federal government would be in the order of magnitude of roughly a third. Again, I apologize I don't have a more precise answer to your question, sir, because I am speculating somewhat on that. Perha

Public Accounts committee  With the greatest--

Public Accounts committee  I will admit that in areas of communications, we're very competent. In areas of writing speeches, we do quite well. In areas of strategic planning, I am very comfortable that should people from Quebec engage us, I'd be delighted. When it comes to knowledge of the guidelines of Tr

Public Accounts committee  With all due respect, this is not.... I would be hazarding a guess, and I don't believe it would be appropriate for me to hazard a guess before this committee today.

Public Accounts committee  I will answer that for the honourable member, if you give me a moment. With respect specifically to Budget 2007, I personally worked roughly 390 hours. My colleague Mr. Tambeau worked roughly 420 hours.

Public Accounts committee  It was sometime in mid-January, sir.

Public Accounts committee  We were approached by the minister's office.

Public Accounts committee  I believe it was by the budget director, actually.

Public Accounts committee  His name is Bill Hourigan.

Public Accounts committee  I thank you for the question. I would describe it as a business relationship. As I believe is a matter of the public record, I was employed at Queen's Park in the premier's office at the same time that Mr. Flaherty was serving in Mr. Harris's cabinet and in the Conservative cau

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that is correct.

Public Accounts committee  Just to clarify the question, is the honourable member asking whether or not I was involved with the administration of the contracts or the work being done once we were engaged by—

Public Accounts committee  Okay, thank you. To answer the honourable member's question, it depends. There were some times when I was the primary person working on the contract. At other times it would have been other members of our staff. We will inevitably, given that we are small, share the workload as