Government Operations committee  Sure. That was a budget 2007 commitment made by the federal government, so it does date back. For the provinces that were willing to eliminate taxes on capital, there was effectively money being transferred from the federal government to compensate them for eliminating those taxe

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure I have that with me. I'll have to get back to you with that one.

Government Operations committee  The actual interest costs are going down over what was forecast. That's because long-term interest rates were effectively lower than was forecast. Whenever we do supplementary estimates, we update the forecasted interest spending based on the Department of Finance's most recent n

Government Operations committee  I can't put a timing on the actual negotiations. The negotiations are starting for the next round, which is during 2014-15. I would assume that as an agreement is reached it would be made public when it is ratified because it is at the bargaining table. I can't really speak to th

Government Operations committee  Just a moment, please. Can you tell me what page this is on?

Government Operations committee  In supplementary estimates (C), there is nothing concerning that agency. So I cannot answer that question for the moment. Maybe if you can give us some additional details we can take your question away and maybe get back to you.

Government Operations committee  I'm still looking for a reduction. I don't see....

Government Operations committee  Ms. Santiago informs me that this a transfer to another organization, and not a cut. We will be able to give you an answer on this in a few minutes.

Government Operations committee  In this case, this is not a cut, this is actually an increase. The Canada-Quebec Accord on immigration is an agreement reached between the Government of Canada and the Province of Quebec. It relates to funding for immigration. What happens is that there is a base amount in the bu

Government Operations committee  Sure. Thank you. There are a couple of things here. These are agreements that were reached during the fiscal year. When a collective agreement is reached, either at the table or through arbitration, it doesn't matter how, there's a calculation done at the centre based on the gro

Government Operations committee  No, these adjustments are all basically collective agreements, so changes to rates of pay, allowances, things like that. None of this money relates to that. The costs that were absorbed by departments around terminations were all effectively absorbed out of the departments' exis

Government Operations committee  Thank you for this question. Currently, there is no plan to indemnify workers who are ill for a short period of time. What budget 2014 has indicated is that the government is looking through the upcoming round of negotiations at a short-term disability regime. There is already

Government Operations committee  This again relates to the role of Treasury Board and back to the link of budgets. When spending plans are at a detailed enough level that Treasury Board will then approve them, that's when you actually roll into the next available estimates document, whether it be main estimates

Government Operations committee  Both are important actually, because if you look at our sick leave regime and we compare ourselves to other employers, the federal government is one of the few large employers that doesn't have a short-term disability regime. So when we look at our employee base, many of our publ

Government Operations committee  Maybe I could finish with one quick comment. In terms of the average statistics we have on our public service, our long-term disability kicks in after 13 weeks. So under the current system, to make it through to long-term disability you need enough sick leave to get you there.