Government Operations committee  This is a sense of what we'll be asking for. We're asking for slightly more than the three-twelfths that you might accustom a department to getting. With the MMIWG finishing, we wanted to ensure they had the funding they require. As you may recall, MMIWG funding falls under our d

Government Operations committee  I've not heard before that we base on the prior year. What happens is that departments go to Treasury Board and tell Treasury Board what they need to get through the first three months of the year. Traditionally you would divide your anticipated budget by 12 times 3, and that wou

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  If you had a specific example you wanted to talk about, we could certainly go into it.

Government Operations committee  What I think—

Government Operations committee  For many of them, it would be the fact that.... I'm looking right now at page 22, and we have the commissions of inquiry. It's not applicable in 2015-16, because we didn't have a commission of inquiry—

Government Operations committee  My team puts it together on behalf of the department, working with each one of them, but looking right now on page 19—and I apologize as I'm flipping through this as we speak—2015-16 shows results there.

Government Operations committee  I apologize. As I flip through, I'm seeing their being applicable, except for a couple.

Government Operations committee  Again, I just want to make it clear that PCO is not spending the money ongoing. We spent the initial portion on their behalf. We spent $438,000. Of that, the lion's share was for IT services, to actually get them up and running...some equipment, some repairs to buildings just to

Government Operations committee  My office had no role in consultation. The Minister of Democratic Institutions has had a role in consultation since the 2015 election, which included a report to another parliamentary committee, PROC. That was part of what was a driver for the creation of the debates commission,

Government Operations committee  I don't have that information. It will be up to the commission to decide that and most likely there would have to be a procurement process for the amount of money that would be spent.

Government Operations committee  Okay.

Government Operations committee  What's clear to me is that on TB vote 40, actually Treasury Board Secretariat had that. Of that amount, PCO accessed the $438,000 I referenced. For every expenditure we took, there was a sign-off from the debates commissioner. We made sure that, even though they didn't exist as a

Government Operations committee  I can assure you that it's clear internally. I feel that it's clear, and I think the debates commissioner would say that he thinks it's clear, although you're free to ask him.

Government Operations committee  Are you talking about the estimates for next year, our interim estimates?