Public Accounts Committee on May 28th, 2014

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Now, again, Finance is involved to give an overall idea of the economy. That happens on a regular basis. The Treasury Board Secretariat constantly checks, along with the Office of the Chief Actuary, to make sure that the formulas are being applied. I know we've heard from the PSPIB before, and in some cases the government has had to top up because the actuary's numbers weren't quite on.

In your opinion, there is an ongoing, continual check to make sure that the assumptions that the government is operating under are correct, and that from time to time accommodations are made for changes in either the formulas that are used or the general performance of the economy.

Would you say that happens?

[Daniel Watson]

It's ongoing and constant with all the players around this table. I doubt there's a single week, and maybe even a single day of the year, where there isn't at least one conversation amongst those of us around the table.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

With these new hires, would you say that the ability of Treasury Board Secretariat to carry out its role has been enhanced to ensure that everyone is steering in the correct direction and that everyone is sharing information so that you can make better decisions more appropriate to what Ms. Cheng and the Auditor General's office has recommended.

Is that correct?

[Daniel Watson]

One of the things that's happened in my 25 years of public service is that pensions have suddenly become cool, and attracting people to work in pensions is way easier than it was before.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

That's very good.

How much time do I have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Well, I was going to take us to 18 and we're pretty close to that now.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

We'll just move into our business.

But I do thank our witnesses today and, hopefully, we'll get a better opportunity, because I did have some questions for some of the other witnesses.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

It is my understanding that there have been some discussion among the caucus leaders and we're going to look at another hour. Am I correct?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Actually, we were betting on who was going to win the next hockey game, but no.

Yes, Mr. Chair, I believe that if you seek it, you'll find unanimous consent to stop the meeting now and then to invite the witnesses we had today for another round—I think an hour or less would be appropriate—and possibly taper it to a business meeting where maybe we're doing report writing, etc.

But it's at your discretion, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Sure, fine. I'll try to see if we can do this really quickly. If not we'll have a discussion out of committee, but June 4 is open right now. My sense is that's when we could or would have been doing report writing. We could easily slot in the final hour of this hearing and then go into committee business. For availability, quickly look at your schedules, please. I know it's short notice.

Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

If I could just intervene, could we leave it at your discretion? I'm fine with that date, but I do want to have some of the guests here because I do know that other members may have specific questions, and some of the ones—

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

No, I was talking about the guests.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Yes, but you and the clerk could maybe arrange that because we do have a vote.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

We do, but I'm going to tentatively ask all of you—I see some heads nodding now—because this is important. I appreciate that. That's why I want to grab people now.

I see some heads nodding, so at this stage right now we are tentatively—you'll hear confirmation from our clerk—looking at June 4. I think we'll do the public hearing in the first hour, and then we'll slip into committee business.

So that's where we are. It is tentative subject to me finalizing it, but we are looking at June 4 for one more hour, and then we'll go into committee business and finish off the report that Vice-Chair Carmichael led at the last meeting.

With that, colleagues, we shall go to the House and vote.

To our guests, thank you very much.

We'll see you on the fourth. We stand adjourned.