Government Operations committee  Yes, I'm quite comfortable in terms of our progression to full accrual budgeting and reporting, and I would say from the perspectives of a professional accountant, the auditor, and the comptroller, the benefits have been there. But I also want to be up front in saying that I do

Government Operations committee  No. I understand. I see my colleagues pushing me to the fore here. Accrual accounting will take resources, and I don't want to minimize that. But I think you can't just look at the cost side of things; you have to look at the benefits. As we've already talked about, when you get

Government Operations committee  In British Columbia, as I told you, quarterly financial statements are another piece of our legislative framework, so they come out September 15, November 15, and then with the budget in February. They have to be prepared on an accrual basis. They're not audited, though. As the A

Government Operations committee  I do, and in B.C., again, another thing I want to emphasize is that we're one approach. There are other approaches that are valid. But we have more work to do. There are a lot of things that we haven't yet done that will help add benefits to what we've already received. The more

Government Operations committee  As a professional accountant, definitely yes, but I want to be fair to my federal colleagues, both the Minister of Finance and the Comptroller General's office, in terms of when and how that really needs them to lead the charge, in terms of preparing the plan, with some impetus f

Government Operations committee  In British Columbia there were some things that dictated our success. To emphasize the imperative, why does this have to happen and who's supporting it--it was clearly there. Once you had that, you needed a realistic plan to share with people, but not a final plan. Similar to w

Government Operations committee  For me, it's hard to speak to that in your environment. I really would need to know it better, and I don't think I do. But again, that decision, that question, came up in British Columbia, and we purposely, based on our circumstances, said no, we need a three-year plan. I know at

Government Operations committee  We had a lot of guidance from the Doug Enns review and from the Auditor General's office, but the plan came at that time from the comptroller's office and from the Minister of Finance.

Government Operations committee  In British Columbia we are seeing some difficulties in recruiting accounting professionals, and my colleague alluded to it as well. I think that's a Canadian phenomenon. I would hope, however, that in your system, as in ours, we have sufficient talent that can be supplemented by

Government Operations committee  In British Columbia, as I said, the budget process review panel came out of a particular issue. In that case, it was headed by a fairly significant chartered accountant, a fellow by the name of Doug Enns. But to my recollection, because it has been some time now, the rest of the

Government Operations committee  If I may speak for British Columbia, one of the features of our new system is that generally accepted accounting principles apply to the budget and to the public accounts. It is law in British Columbia that we follow the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants' guidance. Whe

Government Operations committee  No, I think I'll take those words. I agree that my own Minister of Finance, who is a significant supporter, and the public accounts committee and other legislators, saw this as a positive step. In fact, based on our presentations to them and the fact that it didn't include thes

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. As I said in my introduction, the legislative impact was relatively small. I think part of the reason was that we were implementing a whole series of reforms to budgeting and reporting in British Columbia and there was a head of steam behind that par

Government Operations committee  In British Columbia, our history is a little different. In the late 1980s or early 1990s, we had a cluster of systems of various types. In those days, ministries wanted their own systems to meet their particular needs. There was an acceptance that those needs might be varied enou

Government Operations committee  Good morning, Chair and members of the committee. It is my pleasure to try to give you an understanding of what has happened in British Columbia. As you heard from my auditor colleague, Jim McCarter, I had the fortunate circumstance of having been the comptroller for British Co