Government Operations committee  Now, recognize that's for all three.

Government Operations committee  You already have two of those three in place. I think that's important to recognize, because in Ontario, there was an enormous change in some of the financial systems that were needed to be implemented. Without knowing the details, some of those you quite likely already have.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  I don't know the details of those transitions. We do have a staff member who works with us, who was working in the Province of Ontario at the time. He spoke to me about it and talked about the culture change. In the end, once it was supported and recommended, and once they had planned for it appropriately, he felt it went reasonably smoothly.

Government Operations committee  I believe so. Accrual accounting looks at all the resources, assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses of the government. It is important to get that fulsome picture to be able to manage all of those resources, not just focus on the cash resource.

Government Operations committee  Again, I do not have the exact cycle of the provincial governments, although we've done some research internationally, but here's my understanding of the situation with the federal government in terms of the cycle of the budget and the appropriations. It is my understanding that the appropriations are actually made before the budget.

Government Operations committee  Yes. It is my understanding that some of the structures in the provincial government may be a little different. For example—and, again, this is just my understanding—in the provincial governments, the budget and the estimates are prepared by the same department; whereas in the federal government it's a bit more unique, where both the Department of Finance and Treasury Board, I guess it is, are involved.

Government Operations committee  I don't think we're in a position to comment on that. We also don't have access to the same information that you would have, and we haven't done the detailed research on that.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. It's always difficult in these situations to assess cost versus benefit, because typically, cost is very easy to quantify, and benefits are more qualitative, so they're often difficult to quantify. However, I believe that the benefits do outweigh them, and certainly, when we've looked at the practices in other jurisdictions, this is really a best practice.

Government Operations committee  Strictly speaking, CPA Canada is not involved in auditing the auditor. The auditor would apply the accounting standards, so the Government of Canada does apply the accounting standards that are issued by CPA Canada in the CPA Canada handbook.

Government Operations committee  Let me try to make the analogy with cash. The importance of cash is understandable. Cash is only one of the resources that government has. It's an important resource, but a government has many other resources. If you think about capital assets, buildings are an easy one, but military equipment that the Department of National Defence is responsible for would be another one.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. This is Martha Jones Denning, principal, public sector accounting board at CPA Canada, and I'm Stephenie Fox, vice-president of standards at CPA Canada. On behalf of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.