Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to outline that it's unfortunate I didn't get questions referred to me during the previous question and answer period because I think I could have answered some of the questions that have been posed by committee members. Of the amount of money that's being requested in the transition costs, a big portion of the money, or some of that money, about $167,000 of the portion that Mr. Ramsay is talking about, or the motion talks about, is a result of the decision to move all impacted human resources staff from departments into the amalgamated structure. That meant that a significant number of staff who were taken on by the department were above the salary level for the positions that we had. So we've been in a situation where nearly 20 percent of our staff are above the salary grid than what we have allowed for those positions in the structures when the department was set up. So because of that, we are in the process of reducing people, have been reducing people through attrition over the course of this year. It is an ongoing problem when you're required to take on staff who are paid at higher levels than what the budget allows you for those positions.
The other and the major portion or the balance of the money in this is for what's called an employee leave and termination balance. This is a line item that every department is required to have; it's an accrual for severance that you need to have in place and for the regular costs associated with increased years of service. This line, or this item, should have been incorporated as part of the department's budget when it was first set up, but the amounts have only now been calculated so it took a while to get this number calculated, so that's why it's being brought in at this point in time. So this isn't extra money; it's something that was going to have to be in there at some point.
Was all the accounting work done before the department was set up? I guess apparently not. I'm not sure if it was possible to get it done beforehand or if they had to wait and see who all was being transferred in from departments in order to figure out these accruals. They do relate to accruals, for instance, for retirement costs and for annual experience costs, or the increments that employees get throughout the course of the year. So it's not something that's unusual, but they are benefits that, at some point, will have to be paid and departments all have to accrue them. This line, unfortunately, wasn't included in the budget when it was passed for the beginning of this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.