Government Operations committee  It has added to the transparency. As soon as there is a provincial financing document—whether that's a budget, the quarterly finances, or any of the ones I mentioned previously—there will be a commentary by the financial accountability officer. He provides his own critique of t

Government Operations committee  Let me start that off again, and the deputy will jump in. The province has a 10-year capital plan and 10-year capital numbers. We're one of the first provinces to actually go beyond the one- and three-year period because capital is a long-term proposition. As a matter of fact, t

Government Operations committee  I'm going to take two seconds, and then I'll pass it on to the deputy. It provides a better ability to manage the total human resources cost, because we will know the full scale of the pension and the liability.

Government Operations committee  Just to follow on from the deputy's comments, the accrual basis for accounting for capital has important impacts on decision-makers, because it provides the full cost of the asset, and the full cost of the asset is important in terms of determining whether the particular investme

Government Operations committee  I can start, and the deputy can fill in. Yes, the pension fund is a good example, because accrual, as the committee well appreciates, is a long-term view, and a pension fund is a long-term item. If we did it on a cash basis, then you would be doing it year by year, and neither t

Government Operations committee  Very briefly, about 250 people are immediately involved in it, usually within the Ministry of Finance and Treasury Board. In addition, line ministries will be brought, in depending on whether they are impacted by budget initiatives, but the core group is around 200 to 250. How

Government Operations committee  Very quickly, I just want to draw your attention to the fact that the fiscal cycle is based on three pillars. The first one is the fact that the budget is typically released before the start of the year. That is followed by the tabling of the estimates 12 sessional days after th