Government Operations committee  No, I think that's exactly the right point. If the committee thought that was worthwhile, then it's worth considering.

Government Operations committee  Yes. Just in terms of the cost-benefit, I think another consideration to bring into play is the consultation process that happens before the budget, particularly the work that's done by the Standing Committee on Finance. Currently, that's between October and December. If you we

Government Operations committee  I think that's a good point. There's going to be a trade-off between secrecy and.... Obviously budget information is very sensitive and can have very powerful effects on the market moving and the like. So trying to keep it as tightly held as possible is something we try to achiev

Government Operations committee  Well, I think, as Bill said, even if you had perfect sequencing, there's no guarantee that a spending decision on a budget will show up in the estimates. Some take a couple of years to get through because of the due diligence process that needs to be considered before it's approv

Government Operations committee  If you go way back in history, the fiscal year started at the end of June, June-July, and it was changed to April-May. There are cycles to these things. But, again, when it comes to the question of timing between budget and estimates, I don't think it makes a material difference.

Government Operations committee  If I may add to that, Mr. Chair, in terms of the budget document and new budget measures, at the back of every theme or chapter, there will be a table that provides the funding profile over the first two years. But that's only for new measures that have received a source of funds

Government Operations committee  No, I think that's the key point. In terms of the sequencing of the two documents, really what it comes to is that, when both have been published, then it's a matter of putting out some sort of reconciliation table. As Bill said, that could be in whichever document came last, o

Government Operations committee  Yes, we give a number of presentations to the public that try to explain the budget cycle itself and how that links up with the estimates process. It's not just parliamentarians who have questions about how to reconcile the two.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think Bill basically covered the main points that we would raise.

Public Accounts committee  When I mentioned the U.S. experience with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it wasn't necessarily from a design perspective in terms of how our particular programs were designed vis-à-vis similar programs in the United States. It was more in terms of the macroeconomic a

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I'll take that one. In general, as I mentioned, the government has released seven reports to Canadians on the effectiveness of the economic action plan. They generally attempt to address the issues raised by the Office of the Auditor General, whether the impact of the

Public Accounts committee  I think we'll be able to fulfill the expectations. I think both the first audit and the second audit have been very helpful, in terms of reporting and what is required. As I said, I think it's consistent with the methodology we have adopted.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Maybe I'll take that last point first. The 610,000 is the actual number of jobs that have been created since the trough of the recession in July 2009.

Public Accounts committee  But the 220,000, as I said, is basically an assessment of what the economic action plan, the spending and the tax reductions, based on our model would produce in terms of jobs created or jobs maintained. That methodology has been consistent through the entire process, from budget

Public Accounts committee  In terms of the reports to Canadians, that's more of a macro look at the economic action plan, and we relied on departments in Ottawa to work with their partners on the specific projects under their jurisdictions. So from our perspective, that cooperation worked very well. No con