Government Operations committee  The committees, of course, have the power to summon witnesses, which they don't normally do. The departmental people and the ministers just turn up. In relation to the bills themselves, the committees have no power to amend the bills. They can only make recommendations in relat

Government Operations committee  Each member of Parliament, each senator, has his or her own research staff. They also have research staff attached to their parties. Before the estimates hearings, those research staff do a lot of work preparing material for the senators. The committees also have their non-partis

Government Operations committee  Apart from these committees and the staff who work on the estimates, the estimates and the explanatory notes of the departments are subjected to scrutiny by a large number of other people and bodies. There is a public accounts committee, a joint committee on public accounts, whi

Government Operations committee  The explanatory notes the departments provide are very detailed. Obviously, senators focus on things that are of interest to them, and those matters of interest are very often politically selected. They're the things that are controversial. They are the things there is political

Government Operations committee  Sometimes they do, indeed, yes. They have to improve their understanding by asking questions. That's the whole purpose of the process, because there are things they don't understand, and it's the job of the public servants to make sure that they do understand them as much as poss

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps I could give a quick rundown of what happens with estimates here. The annual appropriation bills are introduced to the House of Representatives in May, with additional appropriation bills in February. In the House of Representatives they go thro