Mr. Speaker, this budget supplement document was provided to Members of the Standing Committee on Finance during the review of the main estimates in January. Information provided to the Standing Committee on Finance is considered confidential by Members of the committee and great care is taken to ensure that these documents remain confidential. For this reason, standing committee Members do not feel it is their place to distribute

documents provided to them by the government during their review of the budget.

However, the Minister of Health and Social Services yesterday appeared to imply that it should have been the responsibility of standing committee Members to distribute the document to all Members. Can the Minister of Finance please clarify whether the Standing Committee on Finance should distribute documents provided to them by the government during their review of the budget? Thank you.