Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. First, I'd like to say something in English before I attempt to continue in French. There are two types of accountability: horizontal and vertical. Vertical accountability is the accountability of the politicians to the electorate, and horizontal accountability is the kind of accountability we're talking about, which is the accountability of government by oversight agencies.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. In fact, this question came up during a CCPAC meeting in Charlottetown. I responded that this was a very interesting subject that eventually we could look into. However, our study involved 14 jurisdictions, and we did not differentiate between majority and minority governments.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much for your questions. In terms of the role of the AGs, we did ask a number of questions. I'm not sure how many you'd like me to give you from the list, but I have about ten of them. There obviously is an attempt on the part of the legislative audit community to work closely with public accounts committees.

Public Accounts committee  I think there's one dangerous question that I can't answer: which is the best PAC? In terms of benchmarks, we haven't gotten there yet. If you go back to the guide, there's a fourth section related to the issue of self-evaluation and planning for excellence. In our capacity building, we want to start a round of meeting the legislatures, talking about these issues, and then we can start talking about it.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much for the question; much appreciated. On the issue of capacity and lack of research support, we just unveiled the strategy a couple of months ago. We haven't started working yet with the legislatures that are in that position. But perhaps our main strategy would be to help the legislature or the government and the auditor general in that particular jurisdiction to raise awareness about the importance of the public accounts committee.

Public Accounts committee  Sure. I'm trying to make that 20-minute limit. The research study that was published contains six different sections, including the Guide, the thickest of the documents. My presentation today will focus on the findings reported on pages 19 through 33 of the guide. Basically, these pages contain our findings and suggestions for strengthening PAC powers and practices.

Public Accounts committee  I do want to thank you. I understand that I've been allocated about 20 minutes to speak. I'm very mindful of the members' time, so I'll try to stick to that. I do want to say that in preparing for this presentation, I've consulted with members of all parties on this committee and with people from the Library of Parliament as well, who have always been an incredible help.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to offer my greetings on behalf of Michael Eastman, our executive director, who unfortunately—unfortunately in the sense that he's missing this meeting—is at an internal audit forum in Nova Scotia today, but he sends his best regards.

Public Accounts committee  I'm appearing before the committee at your invitation, Mr. Chairman, but I'm assuming that the members will go relatively easy on me. Would that be a fair assumption?

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. At this point I can say a couple of brief words about the foundation. I can mention that we'd certainly be willing, on your invitation, to return in the fall for a presentation. But I don't think at this point it would be appropriate for me to make any substantive comments in any way that would supplant the presentations that are being made by our two witnesses today.