Public Accounts committee  I believe that the Auditor General of Canada has very much established a leadership position over the last number of years under Ms. Fraser's leadership in terms of its reputation across the world for excellence in performance audits and excellence in financial audits. I think Ca

Public Accounts committee  I don't think my views have changed. In terms of what it brings to me as an auditor, it tells me that when one is auditing a government, there are always places in which a government can improve and always processes that can be improved. As an auditor, you need to make sure you'r

Public Accounts committee  That's certainly not something I've given a lot of thought to at this point; I would have to take it under advisement. My understanding of the legislation—and I believe it's very similar to the legislation in New Brunswick—is that in situations in which the Auditor General does

Public Accounts committee  Do you mean, to make internal auditing easier? Did I understand that correctly? Internal auditing is a process very similar to external auditing. Really, the only difference is the audience. I'm not sure that I can tell you anything in particular, off the top of my mind, that wo

Public Accounts committee  I am not in a position yet to conduct a conversation in French.

Public Accounts committee  I had two assessments done. One was by phone. I don't remember the name of the company that did that assessment. The other was through the federal government language school.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. It's actually a dual role: Deputy Minister of Finance and secretary to the Board of Management. It is to be responsible for a number of things, from establishing the province's budget, both capital and operating budgets, to also being responsible for the comptroller's office

Public Accounts committee  I think as I said before, Mr. Chair, the main aspect of it preparing me for the role of Auditor General.... Well, I suppose there are two. One is that, first of all, I am now responsible for a larger organization. The auditor general's office in New Brunswick has about 23 people,

Public Accounts committee  I have prepared some statements in French because I was expecting some questions about my French language capability. So I prepared some of those in French. My capabilities in French are more in terms of reading and understanding than of conversation. It is in conversation that

Public Accounts committee  I'm sorry. I had already put the earpiece in before, so—

Public Accounts committee  I'm sorry, I am going to have to use interpretation on that.

Public Accounts committee  I was contacted by a search firm, yes.

Public Accounts committee  I was asked to submit my resumé to the search firm, and then it was their job to determine whether I had the skills to take my name forward.

Public Accounts committee  I am certainly satisfied that I went through what I would describe as a very thorough process and that the selection committee looked at my skill set and have brought my name forward to you. I guess that's really all I can say about that. They looked at all of my skills and decid

Public Accounts committee  Again, I can't really answer that. If you have a copy of the ad and if you're reading from a copy of it, then I'm not going to dispute it. All I'm going to say is that I never did see the official ad.