Moved second reading of Bill C-43, An Act for granting to His Majesty certain sums of money for the federal public administration for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.

She said: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-43 which implements the Supplementary Estimates (C) for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

I intend to speak at greater length regarding the spending items contained in Bill C-43 as part of my remarks at third reading tomorrow.

If approved by Parliament, voted budgetary spending for this fiscal year would increase by $4.7 billion — or 2.1% — to a total of $224.6 billion. Much of the new voted spending is intended to provide military aid to Ukraine; help developing countries address the impact of climate change; reimburse First Nations and emergency management service providers for on-reserve response and recovery activities; write off unrecoverable student and apprenticeship loans; and preserve current capacity and service levels at the Canada Revenue Agency call centres.

These estimates also show, for information purposes, changes in planned statutory expenditures. Statutory budgetary expenditures are forecast to rise by $5.6 billion — or 2.6% — to a total of $218.7 billion.

Before concluding my brief remarks, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance for their study, and thank Senator Marshall in advance for her work as the critic of this bill. Thank you. Meegwetch.