Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I want to say that today is the first time I've met Mr. Ferguson. It's the first time I have had a chance to talk with him, both in English as well as French, and as somebody who has learned French—an anglophone myself—I can tell you that Mr. Ferguson definitely is not a beginner.
I am very impressed with your progress to date, and in fact I am quite surprised at your progress to date. If this continues, I have no doubt you will very soon be very conversant in the French language.
Now I would like to read a quote to the committee, which I have in front of me:
But however stern he might be, he was always fair and always principled. And you can't argue with his main message to any government of the day - that government must be as open and transparent as possible when dealing with taxpayers' money.
Mr. Chair, this is a quote from the New Brunswick Liberal leader, Victor Boudreau, and he is of course referring to our nominated candidate for Auditor General, Mr. Ferguson.
This is yet another of the long list of testimonials of people, from all different parties, who have worked with Mr. Ferguson and who have glowing things to say about him.
Earlier, my colleague, Mr. Warawa, also started to go through the long list of criteria for this position, and it became very clear and evident that Mr. Ferguson qualifies under all of the criteria. The one issue is regarding his language proficiency, and I think that has been already dealt with ad nauseam today.
Mr. Ferguson, during your time as Auditor General of New Brunswick, you ran an office of 22 people, with an annual budget of $1.8 million. Can you please elaborate on how you increased your individual productivity to add value to the taxpayers of New Brunswick?