Public Accounts committee  Not quite. In mid-May we will be tabling the supplementary estimates. That would be the first instalment for 2009-10. We have undertaken to report on all allocations from central votes--which include this one, Treasury Board vote 35--when we table the supplementary estimates (A).

Public Accounts committee  I didn't say that. In fact, Mr. Wouters mentioned that Treasury Board has been very hard at work in doing its due diligence in looking at specific allocations from TB vote 35, but we won't be reporting on that until we table supplementary estimates, and then in the June quarterly

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Monette might want to add comments too. These items are not treated with any less due diligence than any other items that would go through supplementary estimates. They require Treasury Board approval; indeed, they're subject to audit. There's an internal audit and an exter

Public Accounts committee  The examples from the first two rounds of strategic reviews are laid out in the 2008 budget and the 2009 budget. We reviewed $25 billion worth of spending in the last set of strategic reviews. A number of items were identified in terms of reallocating funds to other initiatives,

Public Accounts committee  It is. In fact, we ask the departments to put forward 5% of a particular spending base for reallocation, so we tend to have a lot of smaller items.

Public Accounts committee  I'd be very happy to.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much. In terms of the right priorities, what is being implemented here is the budget, which of course Parliament has approved. The initiatives that are being implemented and funded here have already been approved by Parliament, and that includes TB vote 35. These

Public Accounts committee  I'll try just on the regional equity side, and Mr. Wouters may want to add more. In this reporting that we're undertaking—and we've already produced one report in March at the Department of Finance and Treasury Board—based on information from departments, we'll gather informatio

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. We have been working very hard on RPPs and DPRs for some time and taking advice from this committee and the Auditor General. We do issue guidance to departments such as this and a good practice handbook as well. We do stress the need for departments to be fairly balan

Public Accounts committee  The only thing I would add is that we are also undertaking quarterly reporting. The first report was provided in March, and there'll be another report in June, followed by reports in September and December. These are fairly comprehensive. We are gathering information from departm

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that's correct.

Public Accounts committee  The difficulty we have is that main estimates have to be tabled by March 1. Budgets are typically delivered in February—in this case it was late January—but main estimates cannot reflect what's in the budget. Last year we brought in spring supplementary estimates because departm

Public Accounts committee  When supplementary estimates (A) are tabled in mid-May, an account will be given there of the allocations to budget initiatives through TB vote 35.

Public Accounts committee  Would you like me to address the question, sir?

Government Operations committee  Once the current fiscal year is closed, in public accounts terms in September, we will know what funds have lapsed and what the requests will be for reprofiling. Through the fall, departments that want to reprofile from the previous fiscal year will be able to reprofile into this