Procedure and House Affairs committee  Security is nonetheless an important consideration. I know for a fact that the parliamentary restaurant at the Quebec National Assembly is open to outside visitors.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Indeed, and that's where we have problems.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. And while we are on the subject, I believe I appeared before the same committee at an earlier meeting. We have made special arrangements with the casino and with the Château Laurier to hire on employees when the restaurant closes. We do our best to...

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, we've been somewhat successful in that agreements have been reached. It may not be the kind of success that we were hoping for, because some employees are more interested in making their own arrangements than they are in taking advantage of existing options.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Are you referring to the $8,093,000?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Albrecht asked the very same question. It's a matter of a Treasury Board reporting requirement whereby there must be a separate capital vote, but only when capital expenditures exceed $5 million. Since House capital expenditures total about $3 million, a separate capital vote

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, it's zero, because there was a capital input, and then a capital output.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  These are some of the technical mysteries of Treasury Board.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Indeed!

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This goes back to the $8,093,000. As I said, there was no plan to spend $8 million. Our capital expenditures total only about $3 million. Therefore we don't need a capital expenditure vote. I could perhaps ask the chief financial officer, Claire Kennedy, to elaborate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As you pointed out, I don’t have the figures with me, but I will be happy to get them to you. Let me clarify one thing. As far as I know, the agreements were with the casino and the Château Laurier. I don’t want to imply that various area restaurants signed on. These two facilit

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That may be so, because…

Procedure and House Affairs committee  During discussions between management and the union, we discussed this possibility and possible solutions to help them out. We were told that in accordance with certain specific provisions, women on maternity leave, for example, receive employment insurance, as well as an additio

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You’ve raised a whole other issue here. The question is whether we should keep the restaurant open for the use of parliamentarians, as is now the case, or open it up to the general public and change its mission, in order to make operations cost effective. Access to the facility i

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We could always try out your suggestion during the break weeks. Perhaps this is something that we could consider, for the simple reason that during these break weeks, assistants and parliamentary staff are here. As for the summer months, that’s another story. I will broach the su