Thanks, Mr. Chair. The department, and the Minister said this in his opening remarks, is taking a cut again. This is the fourth year in a row. The department has lost 10 percent of its overall budget over that period of time. When I checked the Department of Finance website for the business plan, there is a list of the mandate items. Only five of 25 mandate items have been completed, and one of the ones that was marked as completed is the Centre of Excellence feasibility study, which hasn't even started, so I'm not sure how that made it in there.
Before the Minister says anything about me throwing the staff under the bus, that is not the case at all. I have worked with many of those staff for 20, 25 years. Great staff, but they are just not getting the resources that they need to get the job done. The lack of progress on the mandate items is probably the best example of that. Can the Minister explain briefly why the department is continuing to take a cut for the fourth year in a row? Thanks, Mr. Chair.