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Government Operations committee We're not really questioning the elements that are in the budget that are stimulus and that are to be accelerated, whether it's to provide a nuclear advantage for Canada and improve the competitiveness of the industry or for other reasons. I'm not really able to debate the policy
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee Sure. Brian.
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee CIDA is seeking $140 million in new funding to support a number of development commitments this year, $70 million of which is to respond to increasing global food aid requirements, consistent with Canada's commitment to a food aid convention. There is also support for the Governm
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee Right. It's a bridge funding mechanism; there's no new money here. The budget established, essentially, the envelope funds. This mechanism allows us to bridge-fund to supplementary estimates and thereby avoid any unnatural breakages that would not allow us to implement some of
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee The way this program works is through contributions by NRC IRAP for research and development in small and medium-size enterprises. So these are firms of up to 500 employees. Essentially the contributions are provided to them so they can hire graduates holding advanced or speciali
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee Perhaps I can start with the first one, the Canadian Television Fund, and my colleague Brian Pagan can help me with this as well. The Canadian Television Fund is a private-public partnership that provides support for the production of high-quality, distinctively Canadian televis
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee They can't do it that directly. The funding here is provided for buying back, if you wish, bundles of mortgage-backed securities, which allows the banks to then lend more money at lower rates to Canadians. And therefore, through that, indirectly it would reduce borrowing costs fo
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee It's also intended for individuals. It's just that it's indirect. If the banks were blocked in lending and didn't want to take on additional mortgages, that would be a big problem for ordinary Canadians who were trying to get mortgages. So this takes some of those mortgages off
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee What I know so far is that funds are flowing through this program, and that they are hiring graduate students--assistants--for the program. So things are under way. I don't know to what extent that's occurring. We are gathering that information now from departments and agencies,
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee Certainly there's funding under Public Works to repair a number of bridges, at least four federal bridges, including two in this area: the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge and a fourth bridge. I know that there's also funding here under Transport for the Champlain Bridge, which is Ca
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee No, that I don't know for sure without reading that chapter of her report to see whether all of the recommendations would be met with these investments. Clearly, they're meeting some of the needs that she identified in her report.
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee I don't think there's anything that's really out of the norm. Due diligence has been applied to these allocations to the TB vote 35 in the same way as applied to the supplementary estimates (A) allocations. We have very good assistance from departments in ensuring that the cost
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee It is $1.8 billion.
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee There are several questions there, and I'll try to address them all. Virtually all the funding here has been allocated to departments, so what was allocated in the central vote is now with departments. How much is spent, of course, depends on the program or initiative. There is
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith
Government Operations committee Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you once again for the invitation to attend. With me is my colleague Brian Pagan, who is Executive Director, Expenditure Operations and Estimates. Today, the President of the Treasury Board tabled Supplementary Estimates (A) for 2009-10. This is on
May 14th, 2009Committee meeting
Alister Smith