Government Operations committee  On the very first question as to the estimates in the budget, they apply for tax reductions and spending increases. Roughly speaking, they would apply both for increases and decreases in the same proportion.

Government Operations committee  I think that covers it. I suppose it's particularly appropriate in the current circumstances, as borrowing costs for municipalities have gone up quite considerably.

Government Operations committee  I'll make a few general comments on that subject. First, if you consider the job cuts in Canada since October 2008, the construction industry is one of the hardest hit. Second, in that case, we expect that there will be enough human resources after all. There may be problems in

Government Operations committee  With regard to specific projects, the department of transport, infrastructure and communities would definitely be in a better position than I to answer the question. The larger economy reveals a reduction in employment in the construction sector and a general reduction in pay inc

Government Operations committee  Those estimates were done by the Department of Finance using an economic model. Roughly speaking, the general approach...if we're looking at a dollar, for example, of construction spending, we look at how much a typical dollar of construction spending generates in additional outp

Government Operations committee  Yes. In fact on page 240 of the budget--not too many people got that far--we see, roughly speaking, that a dollar spent on support for low-income generally, which could include EI and other items such as the WITB, in the first year generates about 80¢ in additional activity. In t

Government Operations committee  Yes, it is.

Government Operations committee  I think the short answer to your question is yes, you will, because those spending items that are being delivered under the authority of the Budget Implementation Act will be identified in both the public accounts and various departmental reports as statutory. Those items that ar

Government Operations committee  Right. The number in the budget for that measure was included in a range of tax measures and tax reductions that were put in place. With respect to monitoring that specific measure, we don't have any data currently, although we would expect that at some point it would show up in

Government Operations committee  I can't expressly speak to the acceleration; however, I can say that the gas tax funds have been transferred to municipalities under agreements that were signed in 2005 and 2006, and that those moneys are flowing on a regular basis in the sense that they don't require specific pr

Government Operations committee  First, the vast majority of programs included in the budget meet an economic need. Many of those programs are already in existence; so we're adding to what is already in place. In those cases, I think it is clear that the departments have the necessary tools and mechanisms to del

Government Operations committee  In this case, this is a program that was put in place not only, but mainly to respond to the decline in recreational infrastructure, partly because a lot of that infrastructure was built in the 1960s, in 1967 more specifically. It is now 40 years old. This includes arenas and oth

Finance committee  Yes, they would have been. Effectively they were, and that was the Budget Implementation Act, 2008. They're here for information only.

Finance committee  No. The payments were made. We're reporting them here for information only.

Finance committee  The government has committed to a block amount of $33 billion for the infrastructure programs, and when it lapses those moneys are pulled forward to future years.