Government Operations committee  Essentially, cash accounting shows the real amounts spent in a year. Let us suppose that the government spends $100 million to build a building and construction takes two years. Using cash accounting, the $100 million would be shown as a cost in those two years. In accrual accoun

Government Operations committee  We have to understand what is really spent, those are the most important amounts in the two years. For example, the money the workers receive is based on cash accounting, not on accrual accounting.

Government Operations committee  Of the 1.9%, 1.5% is federal only and the remainder is a provincial top-up. So 1.5% is federal only, in the first year, and the remainder is an assumed matching from provinces. I point out in that regard that Canada is fairly unique among major industrialized countries in that i

Government Operations committee  The Minister of Finance would be involved in a significant way, clearly, in those reports. The budget itself presents a preliminary estimate of the employment impacts based on a modelling approach. We would expect, as the measures are implemented and put into effect, that we wo

Government Operations committee  With respect to new spending in the 2009 budget, that is correct.

Government Operations committee  I can answer. As to the provinces' budgetary position, they have a lower level of debt than the federal government.

Government Operations committee  I do not have those figures at hand, but I think that if we looked at the municipalities' debt levels, it is not very high, because, you are right, they can only borrow for capital projects. If you take provinces and municipalities together, their debt level is lower than the fed

Government Operations committee  You're correct, for the most part. Past and current infrastructure programs require some funding, but not entirely. For example, the gas tax transfer is not shared or matched, if you will, and that hasn't been changed at all.

Government Operations committee  Yes, for the most part. One of the important rationales behind that is that this is not federal infrastructure; it tends to be provincial or municipal.

Government Operations committee  Yes, the funding for the program is being increased. I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but as I recall, it is by about $150 million a year over two years. It is probably worth pointing out that one can claim both the renovation tax credit and make use of this program

Government Operations committee  That program is managed by Canada Health Infoway, which is a federal-provincial organization. My understanding is that effectively, Ontario, in particular, has not had as large a take-up as other provinces, but I understand they are in the process of doing so. Infoway publishes

Government Operations committee  We haven't done a detailed study, but we have looked at that question. And of course construction employment, along with other employment, has declined recently. Further, our expectation--

Government Operations committee  You're right. And on that, there have been a lot of new homes started in the summer and late 2008 that we would expect to be nearing completion in the next month or two, and as a result of this we would think that in the specific market you refer to there will be sufficient capac

Government Operations committee  There are a number of changes being made to accelerate the existing approval process. There are a number of proposals to change those processes, and they relate to the approval processes required to proceed with these projects. A number of those are—

Government Operations committee  I am talking about—