That, in the opinion of the House, given that the Prime Minister has promised to eliminate the fiscal imbalance and that this imbalance cannot be eliminated without the elimination of the federal spending power in areas that fall under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces, the bill on federal spending power that the government will introduce should, at a minimum, provide for Quebec to have the right to opt out with no strings attached and with full financial compensation from any federal program, whether existing or not and cost-shared or not, which invades Quebec's areas of jurisdiction.

The budgetary Main Estimates support the government's request for Parliament's authority for $72.2 billion in budgetary spending under program authorities that require Parliament's annual approval for spending limits.

If there were federal legislation that said he could incur expenses, would we still have the power to tell him he can only incur $100 worth of expenses?

1. The authorising officer shall be liable to payment of compensation as laid down in the Staff Regulations, which specify that an official may be required to make good, in whole or in part, any damage suffered by the Communities as a result of serious misconduct on his/her part in the course of or in connection with the performance of his/her duties, in particular if he/she determines entitlements to be recovered or issues recovery orders, commits expenditure or signs a payment order without complying with this Financial Regulation and its implementing rules.

The authorising officer administers the appropriations. He alone has the power to "commit" expenditure, i.e. to give the initial authorisation for expenditure.

The comparison of provisions in a bill with the law on the subject, as it exists, may show that, while such provisions undoubtedly involve expenditure, the power to incur such expenditure is covered by general powers conferred by statute.