Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for coming in today.
We're still in the early stages of this study. Some of us are struggling with just trying to identify what the problem really is. It's always interesting and tempting to jump right into coming up with solutions, but we want to get a better understanding of the problem as part of our solution. Also, we're going to be talking to witnesses from other Westminster parliaments that have struggled with a similar issue. The U.K., Australia, and New Zealand are examples.
I think we're in agreement across all of the House of Commons that we want better accountability and better transparency when it comes to spending. What is the structural impediment that prevents the Government of Canada from providing this information? It's not really for parliamentarians; it's really for the people of Canada. They need to be able to see this to know where their tax dollars are going.
Big organizations such as RBC, as you mentioned, or city governments are able to do this. What is it with the Government of Canada? We had some officials in to give us a briefing a couple of weeks ago. They showed us an estimates book from the 1880s. The estimates looked very similar to what they look like today. What's the problem? Why can't we provide the level of detail that Canadian taxpayers and Canadian stakeholders need to see?