Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman. The two processes are in fact connected. They are linked, but they are different. The processes relating to internal controls in government, financial controls and others, are largely the responsibility of the financial community, the

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely, Mr. Chair. This is very significant. In 2004 the internal audit function in government was not what it should be, and that's what we reported in 2004. What you've heard about from all the witnesses today are the significant efforts that have been put into profession

Public Accounts committee  Well, as I indicated in my opening statement, Mr. Chairman, one of the challenges might be--and this is somewhat speculative on my part--that in a period of fiscal restraint.... When the Government of Canada was looking at savings opportunities in the 1990s when we were facing th

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is John Wiersema. I am the Interim Auditor General. I'm joined today by Nancy Cheng, assistant auditor general, and Bruce Sloan, principal. Nancy and Bruce were the auditors responsible for the chapter you mentioned.

Public Accounts committee  Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to discuss chapter 3 of our 2011 spring status report on internal audits. Mr. Chairman, we found that satisfactory progress was made in the area of internal audit. I'm very pleased to say that the government ha

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I would echo what Mr. Wernick said, and I'd go one step further. I would congratulate members of this committee for the quality of their questions and interventions. I believe the committee is starting to get an appreciation of the complexity of the challenge that's

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I do not have a great deal to add to what has already been said, except to say that I agree with the member. It's all four elements; it's the legislative base, the service levels or standards and the outcomes the government is trying to achieve, the funding mechanis

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the member raised a very important question. Mould in housing is a serious health issue, and it is getting more serious out there. In my view, it is much more complicated than having information sessions or educating aboriginals. It's very closel

Public Accounts committee  Yes, Mr. Chairman, the government has made good progress on negotiating and implementing comprehensive land claim agreements. Whether or not the government wishes to pursue that course of action ultimately is a policy question for the government, but there are longstanding issues

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman. I'll turn to Mr. Campbell to help me out here in a moment. Mr. Wernick has already talked about legislation for water standards. For each of the areas we examined in this audit—including housing, education, family services, water, a

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just very briefly, I believe that if the government were to focus on one of the four structural impediments at the expense of the others, and not deal with the others, that would be a significant missed opportunity. I think these very much do need to be

Public Accounts committee  Well, Mr. Chairman, thank you for the question. As I've indicated, these problems that aboriginals are dealing with on first nations reserves are very serious; they're urgent. What I think we need is a fundamental change in the approach to dealing with them, in addition to deali

Public Accounts committee  If I may, Mr. Chairman, I believe the member's question goes to the heart of one of the issues we raised in this report, the issue of improving the legislative base, which is one of the four impediments. I'm not going to tell this committee its business, but one of the recommenda

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada is quite active with the international legislative audit community and compares notes on common subjects that we are examining in our audits. In fact, Mr. Campbell quite recently attended