Public Accounts committee  That is not a term we use. I'll just explain very briefly. If it's a significant deficiency, we will raise it. Anything else is a recommendation for a weakness that we identify as needing improvement.

Public Accounts committee  We don't have in-house residence expertise, but when we deal with particular issues, such as what you're discussing, we engage with private sector counterparts who have the expertise to look at the different models and assess the potential impact. We address the potential issue b

Public Accounts committee  If I may, I'll start, and then I'll ask Mr. Bergeron to provide more specific details. What I'd like to do for a minute, if I may, is to take a look at our report in the bigger picture and drill down to the types of issues and questions you are rightly posing and delving into.

Public Accounts committee  Let me be clear that they do not have a business relationship. Their only relationship is as co-auditors with us.

Public Accounts committee  By law.

Public Accounts committee  We have not audited compensation arrangements for boards of directors. While it is a very important conversation you're having as members, I must say our office has not done any sufficient audit work to have any real comments in that area.

Public Accounts committee  They're pointing to me. I don't know the answer in terms of the whole scale and what numbers apply to the scale. I will simply say that the chairman's assessment of the likely per diem is accurate, from my knowledge of Crowns, generally.

Public Accounts committee  When we talk about reputational risk, we usually refer to that as an illustration of operational risks that can be faced in an institution that are not financial. It's not something that we attempt to see organizations measure as a financial metric or a series of numbers. What we

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our special examination report on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC. As you mentioned, I am accompanied today by Lissa Lamarche, assistant auditor general, who was the principal responsible for this audit at

Public Accounts committee  I think it's a fair question to ask. One, that needs to be managed. Just as we have reported in some other special examinations where you have representative boards, there are challenges with.... What I mean by a representative board is that you have stakeholders with an interes

Public Accounts committee  I think that if it's managed properly in terms of dealing with the particular issues you're raising, you can get the best of both worlds, effectively. You can get the insight into what's important from the principal shareholder. I think it is important not to lose sight that, alt

Public Accounts committee  First it would be the board itself, and second, all those crown corporations are subject to a special examination by the Office of the Auditor General. One of the things we look at is the way in which conflicts are managed in individual organizations. Certainly the minutes of boa

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I may be able to help. It does occur in other crown corporations. It is not universal, so you're right to sort of recognize it as something that is different from what you might see regularly. Typically, my experience has been that appointments of government officials

Public Accounts committee  At the time we did the audit of AECL, we identified this as a recommendation to consider. As Mr. Lajeunesse has indicated, they have taken steps to respond to the recommendations we have identified. However, as I said in my opening statement, as of today, I have not audited all o

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, if I may respond, when we looked at compensation, and you've raised a lot of different issues in your observation. Suffice it to say that our expectation is not always that the CEO be the highest paid individual in an organization. Although that should be a driving fac