Government Operations committee  Obviously, I'm not from the communications team, but my sense is that the communications team is working overtime, if anything. The new money for advertising is being fully allocated, so it's not obvious that there would be savings.

Government Operations committee  I agree with the point that the existing Department of Finance budget could be used for all government priorities and all announcements, most of which in recent weeks and months have focused on COVID-related responses.

Government Operations committee  No. Thank you.

Government Operations committee  That's right. The CERB extension says that individuals who come up against the eligibility limits will have eligibility for another eight weeks. When the next report is tabled, we'll have some estimate of the fiscal impact of that decision to extend, and there are always updates

Government Operations committee  I'll take that one. I think the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have both spoken on this matter. The government has not said they will not produce a budget. They are concerned about the timing: what we are able to say at a given point in time and how easily what is sa

Government Operations committee  From a technical standpoint, lots of things can be done mechanically, but I think the real question is whether it is the right time to provide a budget that provides useful information about the government's economic and fiscal situation. The government is studying these issues.

Government Operations committee  Generally, a budget tends to be a larger exercise involving more expenditures and is for making decisions on a go-forward basis for an entire year. Typically, an economic update is provided at a different time of the year from when you traditionally put out budgets. Often it's se

Government Operations committee  I can take that question. With regard to these reports that we are putting out to FINA, I have an example of one here. We just deposited on Thursday the sixth report, which was put out on June 10. What they all do is review, essentially, the different components of the acts and

Government Operations committee  I have the amounts at my disposal, but I would turn to my colleague Soren for more questions about the program. We have estimated the total of that at $2.974 billion.

Government Operations committee  Soren.

Finance committee  You raise a really important point. In fact, the minister has been active in encouraging her colleagues to consider these issues. I very much think this government has been taking into account broader issues, as have many governments, in fact. The fact that we have been willing t

Finance committee  Thanks for the question. It's very true that what has been so difficult about trying to provide a sense of the government's fiscal situation on a go-forward basis is the economic uncertainty. Of course, that economic uncertainty is really tied to some basic scientific uncertaint

Finance committee  In terms of your questions about modelling results, a lot of these things and the sources of uncertainty that we're experiencing are making point estimates and models difficult exercises, but absolutely there has been a very severe decline in economic activity and employment. I t

Finance committee  The government has not yet chosen the timing for the economic update. We'll do that. We are working, of course. We're very interested in studying these issues and discussing them. We've started discussions with private sector economists, and we'll provide that support. That work

Government Operations committee  As mentioned, we will be providing a fiscal update at some time in the near future, but we can't give you details on that yet. At that time, when we come out with either an update or a budget, you'll have detailed information on those forecasts.