Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the sixth department that we’re in the middle of process review for main estimates and I’m always haunted by the voices of our Minister of Finance, baton down the hatches, fiscal restraint, and yet when I look at this directorate in terms of what we’re doing just in compensation and benefits and changes to the overall structure of number of personnel, I find myself at odds with what I’m
hearing from the Finance side of our government versus what we’re seeing in this department.
Madam Chair, since 2011-2012 we’ve seen with the main estimates today an 18 – if my calculations are correct – an 18.9 percent increase in compensation and benefits, and even since the revised estimates of last year, we’re seeing a 14 percent increase in our compensation and benefits. Can I get a rationale as to why we need to see such growth given the fact that this exceeds, far exceeds forced growth and where we’ve had issues with some of our other budgets where we can’t even get forced growth in program development, but yet we seem to have more than enough money to deal with more personnel? Can I get a comment on that, Madam Chair?