Public Accounts committee  That was an undertaking of the department. At that point the tribunal had not been created and the administrative support service agency had not been created, so the initial work for the transition was undertaken by the department.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. We had transition planning, but as I have indicated, I think in retrospect that the period of time that was taken to do this and ensure that the tribunal had a complete and a good launch was far too short.

Public Accounts committee  I will ask Benoît to add to this, Mr. Chair. As I indicated with respect to the cases in the pipeline in the backlog, we introduced this thinking about a balance of probabilities. We frankly were just much more aggressive in going through those cases and determining the likelih

Public Accounts committee  There is an awful lot in reality that flows from the timing assumptions that were made, so it is a significant error when you get the planning assumption wrong about timing. The second thing is that we did not have complete information about the caseload. That's another critica

Public Accounts committee  They were $25 million, if I remember correctly.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. The way the system operates, Chair, is that when a government makes a decision about funding levels on the basis of predictions or program demand or whatever it might be, that is reflected in the reference levels of the department, and it will be ultimately reflected in the

Public Accounts committee  That's correct.

Public Accounts committee  I think the key issue—maybe Muriel could add to this—is the number of decision-makers, the number of adjudicators. That was one of the key shortfalls, the number of adjudicators who would be—

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, that is exactly the right place to start. I was the deputy minister during this period of time, and I take responsibility for what happened in the department during this time. I'm not going to repeat the diagnosis that you have just made. As I indicated, the depar

Public Accounts committee  I want to go on, Chair, to—

Public Accounts committee  —speak to two specific components of the planning that in retrospect were faulty.

Public Accounts committee  We made unrealistic assumptions. I think one of those may very well have been about the time it would take to get everything in place. We were too ambitious in the planning assumption about the time it would take to get this done.

Public Accounts committee  I agree, Chair. That's my security in this case, if nothing else.

Public Accounts committee  I don't think that we are able to specify a proportion, Chair. I would indicate, however, that demographics are without question a factor. Age, unfortunately, often carries with it the triggering of disability, so that is definitely a factor, but I do not believe that we have the

Public Accounts committee  That is something we fully intend to change, including by developing tools that will be available for the adjudicator so that the decision on eligibility on the basis of contributions is assessed or flagged right at the outset.