Evidence of meeting #42 for Public Accounts in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agency.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Michael Ferguson  Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Janet King  President, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
Mitch Bloom  Vice President, Policy, Planning, Communications and NPMO, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
Yves Robineau  Chief Financial Officer, Director, Corporate Services, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
Glenn Wheeler  Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Michael Bloor  Regional Director, Yukon Region, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON

Did that process see its result in the projects that were funded? In other words, were the projects that were funded within those priority areas that were established by the wide spectrum of participants in that consultation?

4:55 p.m.

Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Glenn Wheeler

The five-year plan served as a guide, so that when the agency was looking at where to put its resources each year, it was able to fund projects that were consistent with the priorities, yes.

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON

Thank you very much.

I have a technical question that you can help me with, just for understanding's stake. In paragraph 6.28, you talked about the agency having completed project risk assessments for projects approved in 2011-12 and 2012-13. You then said that there were no analyses for those risk assessments.

I didn't quite understand what you were trying to say there. How can one complete a risk assessment without an analysis? Can you explain that? This is a technical question, I guess.

4:55 p.m.

Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Glenn Wheeler

Mr. Chair, there were two types of risk assessments done: one was for recipients and one was for projects. We found that the agency not only did the recipient risk assessment in terms of whether it was a high, medium, or low risk, but also did an analysis that justified the reason for the categorization. Alternatively, on the other side with the project risk assessments, although we found that they also designated each project as a high, medium, or low, there was not the analysis to back that up.

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Chair Conservative Bryan Hayes

Thank you, Mr. Woodworth. Your time has expired, as has the questioning.

With that, on behalf of the committee, I'd like to thank our witnesses very much today.

Ms. King, I'm thinking this might be your first time in front of a committee like this, I don't know. You handled yourself very well, and we appreciate all of your input. Thank you very kindly.

If there is no other committee business, we are adjourned. Thank you.