As far as I know, these business plans are not classified.
Evidence of meeting #8 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was telefilm.
Evidence of meeting #8 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was telefilm.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
As far as I know, these business plans are not classified.
4:35 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada
My colleague is saying he thought perhaps it was because they were considered as cabinet confidences. That might be why. I must admit I don't have the answer.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Okay, but do you have access to cabinet confidences—to all of them?
4:35 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada
For cabinet confidences we have access to analysis; we don't have access to the actual recommendation. There are certain things that are excluded, but we have access to most.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
If there were to be a problem with the implementation of a business plan, you'd then have to report to Parliament in a rather tortuous way so as not to divulge this information, but only what was divulged in the summary; is that correct?
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
4:40 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada
Where it would come up especially is in the five-year special examination. That report is given to the board but is also made public now; it would be available for parliamentarians. That would be one area. If there were an impact on the financial result or an area of real significance, we would also mention it in our opinion on the financial statements as another matter to be considered. And when we mention another matter, we generally include it in a report to Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Richard Flageole Assistant Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
The regime is described in the Financial Administration Act. The Financial Administration Act requires that only the summary plan be tabled in Parliament.
There are probably a number of reasons. I'm thinking, for example about some of the commercial crowns, such as Export Development Canada. The detailed plan will probably include some commercially sensitive information.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
I perfectly understand that and accept it. I'm talking about cases where they're not necessarily in a competitive environment—the National Gallery, for instance. Perhaps they're competitors in a very large sense of the word, but in essence they're not competing directly with any similar institutions. That's why I was wondering why such business plans would not be made available to the public at some point. They are public institutions.
I understand the confidentially requirement for the competitive aspect, and perhaps they have it in terms of their boutiques and the business end of it. But in terms of the overall plan, one would think perhaps there should be more transparency than currently. But that's a voeu pieux, as we say.
4:40 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada
One thing this makes me think is that we could perhaps in our special examinations look to ensure that the summaries adequately reflect more details—
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Ah, now we're getting somewhere. That would be very useful, Madam.
4:40 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada
—and that all the important information is brought forward into the summary.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Earlier there was a question raised, I believe by Mr. Malo, regarding the Canadian Television Fund and also Telefilm Canada. My question is this. Have you conducted an audit of every corporation and agency that falls under the umbrella of the Department of Heritage?
4:40 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada
No. We are now auditors or co-auditors of all crown corporations. We have been doing a financial audit of Telefilm for a number of years. Telefilm wasn't previously subject and will now be subject to a special examination once every five years as well, so we will be conducting that audit. But there could be agencies within the department that don't have the status of a crown corporation and don't have annual audits for which we would do one on some sort of cyclical basis.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Are the reports we have before us comprehensive for the Department of Canadian Heritage?
4:40 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada
No; they would simply be one aspect of the department.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
They would be one aspect of it. All right.
I'll follow up on the previous question I asked in my first round. We're now talking about an interim facility for, say, a 15-year-period for the storage of our archived heritage. There's also some suggestion that a long-term plan is being developed. Could I ask the officials who are here and who would have some knowledge about it what that plan entails, if in fact it has already been crafted? If not, do we have a timeline when that plan will be available?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Corporate Management Branch, Library and Archives Canada
I think the plan should probably be available next spring. We are looking very carefully at all the needs. You are probably aware that we have in our act legal deposit--acquisition of two copies of every Canadian publication--so we need to look at future needs. We're looking at the needs of departments and what it will entail for us in terms of ingesting those documents. We're also working with the Department of Canadian Heritage to see if there are needs we can deal with together, so we are currently working on the plan and analyzing those needs; we should probably have something in the spring.
