First, major increases in budgetary Main Estimates: $874 million for the Canada Health and Social Transfer payments, specifically applicable to the Department of Finance; $840 million for increased employment insurance benefit payments under Human Resources Development Canada; $806 million for fiscal equalization payments under the Department of Finance; $700 million for salary and wage increases, including funding for the salary, wage, and related benefit costs for judges, the military, and RCMP members, basically covering all departments and agencies; $600 million for income disaster assistance for farmers, in response to recent declines in commodity prices, under Agriculture and Agri-food Canada; $583 million for old age security, guarante ...[+++]ed income supplement, and spouses' allowance payments under the Department of Human Resources Development.

We can now look at some of the major decreases in budgetary Main Estimates. There is a $1 billion reduction in the forecast of public debt costs in the Department of Finance; $226 million with the end of the transition to NAV CANADA, under Transport Canada; $203 million as a result of reduced payments under the Farm Income Protection Act, due to the completion of various provincial programs, safety net companion programs, decreased payments under the Net Income Stabilization Account, and re-phasing of cash flows under the Agri-food Innovation Program, all of which come under the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Question No. 15 Hon. Geoff Regan: With regard to the Standards Council of Canada (SCC): (a) does the SCC consider the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) a commercial entity or a regulatory entity; (b) does the SCC believe that CSA owns any portion of Canadian law; (c) does the SCC believe that the CSA is afforded an exemption, or exemptions, to Canadian law; (d) does the SCC believe that the CSA has the right to restrict public access to Canadian law; (e) what is the average annual value transferred from CSA to provincial governments in payment for those contributions; (f) what percentage of CSA members’ payments for Canadian Elec ...[+++]trical Code (CEC) influence are diverted to non-CEC activities; (g) does the SCC believe that the CSA practice of trading influence over, or control of, legislative processes in exchange for money or other value consideration is a violation of law; (h) does the SCC believe that the CSA practice of leveraging regulatory authority for commercial advantage is an abuse of regulatory authority; (i) what is the increase in annual revenue experienced by CSA, expressed both in percent and in Canadian dollars, resulting from this decision to tighten the Code development cycle by 25 percent; (j) what is the average annual value of royalty payments made to CSA by each of the government of British Columbia and the government of Ontario in exchange for the right to print the statutes that CSA claims to own and that these jurisdictions have passed into law; (k) does CSA provide access to Canadian law at different costs to different customers according to the values that these customers have at various times paid to CSA; (l) does the SCC assure Parliament that CSA does not leverage any value in any form, including contributions of content and labour, from activities related to the CEC for any of its commercial developments including the CSA Handbook; and (m) does the SCC believe that articles and documentation that are developed as part of a ...

to retain an across-the-board reduction in commitment and payment appropriations requested in the PDB by an amount of EUR 150 million under budget heading of sub-Heading 1a where the appropriations are greater than EUR 50 million, apart from three headings related to CAP reform; this reduction is in line with the overall approach of controlled growth in payment appropriations, in which it is proposed to include compulsory expenditure (sub-Heading 1a) and non-compulsory expenditure (other headings); to accept the Commission's PDB as regards appropriations for rural development (sub-Heading 1b); to accept the revision of the Financial P ...[+++]erspective transferring in 2006 an amount of EUR 655 million from sub-Heading 1a to sub-Heading 1b for agricultural modulation; the margin available under Heading 1 would be EUR 1 355.68 million.

an across-the-board reduction in commitment and payment appropriations requested in the PDB by an amount of EUR 1 billion under all budget articles of subheading 1a (market expenditure for agriculture and rural development) where the sum of appropriations is greater than EUR 800 million; this reduction is in line with the overall approach of controlled growth of payment appropriations, in which it is proposed to include compulsory expenditure (subheading 1a) and non-compulsory expenditure (other headings); it represents a 6,4% increase compared to 2004. acceptance of the Commission's PDB as regards appropriations for rural development ...[+++](subheading 1b).

1. the period for payment of contractual debts by the contracting authorities as determined under Article 3(1)(a) to (c) is not more than 45 calendar days except where the value of the contract exceeds EUR 100 000, in which case the maximum period for payment shall be 60 calendar days; the contract may under no circumstances override these time limits; in a public contract, the main contractor shall grant conditions to the suppliers and subcontractors which are at least as favourable as those granted to the main contractor by the contracting authority; in order to guarantee these conditions to suppliers and subcontractors, the main co ...[+++]ntractor shall be required to provide a guarantee made out to the supplier or subcontractor covering payment of all the amounts owed.