Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not anticipate the Minister would have that information, but I would ask him to please prepare some information in regard to the remuneration paid by governments in other jurisdictions under the pay equity issue at some time later for the House? Thank you.

Agreed, Mr. Chairman. Agreed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just following up on Mr. Henry's question, could the Minister also indicate which provinces have not finalized their pay equity situations? Also could he indicate how they arrived at the solutions for the settlements and the areas that have settled their disputes?

Well, it will probably take some time to gather that information and it will be subject to concurrence of the appropriate provincial jurisdiction. Certainly, I think in our research we have done some of that work anyway. I will undertake to provide that information to my honourable colleague. Yes.

I am not prepared to say that I can get some of this information overnight. Some of this stuff is going to take some time and some research. It would be difficult for me to quantify. I will say that I will try to get it as expeditiously as possible, but I cannot determine sitting here without doing some phone calls and doing some research, and talking to the staff as to just how long it will take. But I certainly will make the effort to get it as quickly as we can.

My able deputy advises me that under the fraud issue, we will give it to you next week. The BIP may take a little longer. It may take somewhere around a month to two months. The appeals, we will give that to you next week; and on the pay equity issue, we will give you some of it next week and the rest of it within the next two to three weeks.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Does this government have a provision in the budget that indicates a liability for this pay equity issue?

No, we do not have a figure on the liability because it is under negotiations at this time. I have not booked within the income statement or the balance sheet a liability. We think, Mr. Chairman, what we put on the table earlier this week was a fair and affordable proposal, and I am hoping we can get the agreement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would the Minister or his able deputy know how the federal or the provincial governments deal with this in their budget? Do they indicate a liability of any sort, or do they just put a note in there that this is pending?

I will ask Mr. Voytilla to answer that question, to make sure that I do not make any foibles with respect to Mr. Erasmus' question.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All governments or the majority of them in producing their financial statements adhere to accounting policies that are nationally recognized and accepted. Those policies provide the guidelines under which liabilities are reported and dealt with. In the case of something like pay equity, it would depend on the circumstances in the particular jurisdiction whether they actually booked an amount or not. Where you can reasonably estimate the amount of the liability, then you would be obligated to book an amount to actually charge the amount. Where you are not able to reasonably estimate it, then you would have to disclose it in your notes to your financial statements. In our circumstances because we have not been able to reasonably estimate it, we have not booked an amount but we have, for a number of years, disclosed the potential contingent liability in notes to our financial statements. Our actions have been in accordance with the generally accepted

accounting principles that we have to adhere to when we are preparing our financial statements.

Mr. Chairman, what is the reason why we cannot reasonably estimate this amount? Is it because we do not know the number of employees involved or which ones are involved?