Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, that heading includes, first of all, professional consultation services. For example, there is the potential implementation of various computer systems. There's also speech-writing and thus everything that falls under professional services. Under this heading, we a

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The explanation is that a number of collective agreements were in effect on the House administration side. So there were arrears. The House had to comply with a 1.5% retroactive increase. I have the details on the collective agreements. In some cases, we went back two years becau

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I have the breakdown of budgets for members, House officers and presiding officers. If additional information is required, I can provide it. With regard to members and House officers, the salary breakdown is approximately $240 million. That also includes social bene

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think we do recommend approximately $2 million for the liability insurance.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, actually, there is the members' allocation and services manual. I could provide the exact reference, but basically, looking under constituency offices, it indicates that a member may charge to the member's office budget the liability insurance. We don't indicate, however, th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Normally, any insurance taken out by MPs covers bodily harm to their visitors or employees, as well as any damage to the building. Everything is not covered by the owner. However, as a general rule, the capital assets inside, such as chairs, desks and other equipment, are not co

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, exactly. It is really for situations where there is bodily harm—for example, if someone injures himself and then sues; for those cases, we encourage MPs to secure insurance.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Most members usually do have insurance as well. There are some damages that are covered. As well, once we have the police report or fire department report on an exception basis, because the equipment will need to be replaced, the House is, per se, self-insured, if you wish, in

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. In answer to the question, I spoke personally with the member once we were contacted by his office a number of weeks ago. I provided the contact that the member gave us with different options in terms of rental of equipment. At the time, the member could not re-enter

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is a Treasury Board reporting requirement whereby when we look at the expenditures of the House that are $50,000 or more, if they total over $5 million we must show them separately. However, in the case of the $8 million, there is only $3 million that falls under this parti