Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of you for coming in this afternoon. We appreciate your joining us today.
There are a number of things. Obviously, estimates can be somewhat dry, but once you get into something, there may be something of interest buried down deep. So we're going to drill in a little bit, if that's all right.
I've been spending a fair bit of time, as those members who have been longstanding on this committee will know, on concerns I have with regard to the public service and the renewal actions that have been initiated by this government and previous governments. I'm not yet convinced that although we're spending significant amounts of money we're necessarily getting the total result we're hoping for. I think there continue to be some places where we could maybe manage this better.
I do see that there has been a significant expenditure of $17 million, and Mr. Smith, you did get into it to an extent, but I wonder if I could just drill down into those numbers a little bit. Maybe it's appropriate for our committee to understand a little bit more clearly exactly what those moneys are being utilized for.