Government Operations committee  It's a good question.

Government Operations committee  Actually, what you're seeing is there were already planned savings in both of those organizations because we were heading into the third year of reductions due to the deficit reduction action plan. The merger itself was not done to generate savings; it was done more to align poli

Government Operations committee  It is driving savings throughout, and CRA is the best example. As mentioned, half of that saving relates to softwood lumber, and the other half is administrative savings. I highlighted e-filing as an example, but to talk further about this, they have changed rules so that major

Government Operations committee  Well, there are a couple of reasons. Is this the Public Service Commission we're speaking about?

Government Operations committee  In the English version, it's page 270 of the main estimates. One moment, please.

Government Operations committee  What page is that on?

Government Operations committee  If you're looking at program expenses, I'm curious as to where you're finding that figure. Basically, main estimates 2014-15 are down from main estimates 2013-14. The reason described here is a decrease of $4.5 million from the last round of spending reviews, and then another d

Government Operations committee  The only way I could respond is anecdotally. From my perspective, no, it has not. Unfortunately, Mr. Watson is no longer with us. He might have some statistics on that front, but anecdotally I can tell you it has not. That's really all I can offer on that front.

Government Operations committee  No. It basically means that it's a one-time cost, and if a department can absorb that one-time cost, for building fit-up or something like that, we basically let them borrow money from a previous fiscal year or a future fiscal year to fund the one-time cost, and it's then basical

Government Operations committee  This one is a bit odd, so thank you for the question, and please bear with me. Remember that I have told this committee in the past that the budget is on a full accrual basis and estimates are on a modified cash basis. That is an important point when we think about this. The go

Government Operations committee  When you're into infrastructure programs, there are basically funding agreements in place that, depending on the complexity of the agreement, will require the province as well as the city to put in money. It is cost-shared. The federal contribution to a particular project is nail

Government Operations committee  That's the basis for the federal-provincial negotiations that will precede any sort of agreement, labour market development, or whatever its replacement is. There does have to be joint agreement. It's not just a case of saying, “Here's the money. do what you want.” There is an ag

Government Operations committee  In response to the question about the fiscal year 2014-15, we're dealing with the ongoing investigation, Transportation Safety Board. They have indicated at this stage that they do not require additional money for that investigation. There is nothing in the 2014-15 estimates fo

Government Operations committee  You could see it in a couple of ways. If they get enough lead time, you could see it through a supplementary estimates item. It's possible you would see it there. We covered this earlier in the presentation. If we were in between supplementary estimates, and a department is cau

Government Operations committee  Absolutely, so I understand.