Government Operations committee  No, I am not. That is done by our program sector. And as I said earlier, I'm sure the secretary or the associate secretary would be happy to come and speak to you about that.

Government Operations committee  How it's going to be managed, I think, is a question in terms of the cost containment measures. With the cost containment measures the hope is that with the attrition rate there will be retirements, but those retirements will not be filled as the cost containment measures take ef

Government Operations committee  Vote 15 is the vote about the compensation adjustments, which is the $137 million I talked about. The benefits that are the employee benefits--public service health care plan, dental plan--that's vote 20.

Government Operations committee  Many times they don't get asked for until the collective agreements have been signed and ratified. I believe some of these collective agreements were actually signed after the main estimates had been prepared. Hence, we come back and get it at the first chance we get.

Government Operations committee  That's a good question as well. However, it's not within the scope of TBS vote 1 and vote 15.

Government Operations committee  I apologize.

Government Operations committee  Yes, I can do that, absolutely.

Government Operations committee  Yes, it is.

Government Operations committee  It's a good question. Unfortunately, we're not able to provide the answer.

Government Operations committee  I said that it's a very good question. Unfortunately, it's not within the scope of what we were requested to be here for.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. That's a very good question. However, the scope of being here is to talk about the departmental supplementary estimates (B) for Treasury Board, Public Works, and PCO. That would be an excellent question for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

Government Operations committee  In the operating budget for the cost containment we have to absorb our salaries, and that's what we will be doing.

Government Operations committee  What I was referring to was cost containment measures within the Treasury Board Secretariat as a department, not the government as a whole.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. In terms of the cost containment measures, one of the key elements in containing the costs in the public service is actually containing the payroll costs. We have just recently negotiated the collective agreements so that we can contain the payroll c

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, this question is outside the scope of the supplementary estimates (B) vote 1 and vote 15. As I have stated earlier, the secretary of the Treasury Board or the associate secretary would be happy to appear before the committee to answer these questions.