Thank you, Minister.
I believe you're referring to a program called consulting and audit Canada. Is that correct? If that is indeed the case, it is an organization or a group—and my colleagues from public works would be in a better position to respond to you—that offers audit services on a price point basis. It is not a group of auditors that is embedded in organizations. We have those across the Government of Canada. We have departmental audit committees now in each organization. They provide advice to deputy heads on the financial controls and management of their organizations. Each organization has a chief audit executive. They are staffed by certified practitioners who provide internal audit services to their organizations.
This particular group acted as almost an inside-government consulting service. It is a service we can procure from the private sector quite effectively, and we continue to do so. In this instance, it is deemed to be an area in which the government is no longer required to provide services because they are either inside departments and organizations or they are easily procured in the private sector. So from that perspective, we are not affecting the capacity of organizations to perform audits. We have some very well structured audit committees, many of which—in fact most of which—are chaired by people outside the public sector so that they can in fact give us advice on how we manage and how we establish sound financial controls.