Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since we are going through this document in some detail, I would like to make a comment on the business of efficiency. The report does deal in some detail with the difference between efficiency and effectiveness, and how effectiveness is measured in the relationship between cost and what you are getting out of the money being spent. What I would like to ask the Government Leader is, since this is a focus of the report -- it is a crucial issue -- I refer to a middle paragraph on page 13, where it says, "For the purposes of this project, the term 'efficiency' was defined as the ratio of effectiveness to cost, and the project group was concerned with the many ways this ratio, or relationship, can be improved. For example, if ways could be found to increase effectiveness for the same cost, the result is greater efficiency."
There are lots of phrases in here which talk about many ways, different methods and so on. The project group identified this as an issue, and that all kinds of efficiencies could be gained if we really attempted to get far more benefits at a reduced cost, because we are faced with a decrease in the amount of money that we would have available to us in the future. I wonder if I can get a response to this. What are the many ways? I see this phrase being reiterated throughout the report: many this, many ways, many methods, and so on. It is very difficult to know exactly what the project group had in mind.
For most of us, although we can conceive that you can do things with a little bit less money, how can you get better results with less cost? This is what I gather from the report; that we could tighten up, spend less money, and yet we can get better results and that, then, is called "efficiency." The smaller amount of money you spend for a good quality result is, in fact, the measure of efficiency. Could we have some idea about the many ways in which this could be improved? I have looked through the report to find examples of how you can get better results for less money, but it is not very clear to me how you can do that.