Economic Action Plan 2013 Act, No. 1 (Bill C-60)

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, in line with the last point to the parliamentary secretary, I was recently reviewing the costs of the operations of the Prime Minister’s Office, which is the least accountable part of this entire federal budget. It is now almost double what it was at any time in our history. It is now at about $10 million a year. In an effort to find out how many people work there, I was told that it was off limits for Canadians to know what the $10 million in the Prime Minister’s partisan operations of exempt staff in the PMO actually is spent on.

I wonder if the hon. parliamentary secretary could offer us any guidance as to how we could get some accountability out of that rogue branch of government.

Eve Adams: Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak to economic action plan 2013, which is our government’s plan for jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.

Ensuring that we respect taxpayer dollars is vitally important to our government in just about every measure we have brought forward. Ensuring that the average family of four sees annually savings of $3,200 and allowing seniors to split their pension income shows that we are clearly committed and on the side of Canadians at the end of the day.