Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, the first comment I would make is that I am not able to shed any light on how the 32 projects were selected because there is no documentation in the Government of Canada to explain clearly how those projects were selected. We don't have a mandate issue here, Mr. Ch

Public Accounts committee  Those are tough questions to prepare for, Mr. Chairman. I'll ask Wendy to bail me out on this. The member points out, correctly, that this was a huge undertaking. There were a number of different summits, and the planning took place over a very, very short period of time. Publi

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. Frankly, I share the member's deep concern with the way reservists have been treated here. Parliament authorized the creation of this plan in 1999. It came into force in 2007. In 2010, they'd only processed 400 out of 9,000 applications. I

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. I will turn in a moment to Mr. Campbell to help me with this because Mr. Campbell has been responsible for a lot of the work we've done on aboriginal issues in the office. He's intimately familiar with them. Our report identified four stru

Public Accounts committee  That's a harder one. I'm not quite sure how to deal with that one, Mr. Chairman. I would have to think about every single one of the audits we've done in recent years, where the results were positive, and ask myself whether this was due to good financial management and internal a

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I have received letters from members of the opposition parties relating to the G-8 legacy fund. I have not received any letters from members of Parliament dealing with the broader question of the overall G-8/G-20 summits and the cost of those programs, the $1 billio

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, the public accounts committee, in my opinion, is essential for the success, or otherwise, of the work of the Office of the Auditor General. The public accounts committee provides a forum in which to have a public discussion of our findings. The public accounts committe

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, we indicated in our report that public servants were not involved in project selection. I stand behind that report. I continue to believe this was the case, and when we have talked to government officials about the role public servants played in some of those meetin

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm not able to shed any light on the specifics of the particular situation the member is referring to. I would just go back to our comment. It is not normal for public servants not to be involved in the process for determining which projects will ultimately be reco

Public Accounts committee  Yes, Mr. Chair. Strong internal audit and strong financial management will contribute to improving financial management and transparency.

Public Accounts committee  That one's a little bit tougher, Mr. Chair. I don't know that we have systematically or rigorously compared the quality of financial management and internal audit in Canada with that in other sovereign governments. However, I've said this publicly before, and I'm prepared to say

Public Accounts committee  I'd be pleased to, Mr. Chairman. I believe that the previous audit we did on financial management was probably around 2002. One of the most significant findings coming out of that audit was that when we looked at the qualifications of the SFOs--a government term meaning senior

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm not able to comment on the communication between the former Minister of Industry and mayors because they were not subject to our audit. As to whether or not any internal audits have been done in this area, I believe that.... Federal internal audits? In terms of

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I don't believe it is appropriate for me to comment in terms of how ministers carry out their duties, so I'll pass on that one.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, as we indicated in our report, public servants were not involved in the project selection. That would be the normal process that would be followed, and the absence of the public servants' involvement in the documentation as to the project selection is the issue that