Information & Ethics Committee on April 26th, 2007

[Robert Marleau]

It is, yes.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay. And then where does the money that was allocated last year show up?The reason I'm asking is that there was a bit of debate from me about why you would have it if you're not using it.

So where does that show up? I'm assuming that's part of your base for this year. Is that correct? Or doesn't that show up in any base? It's still Treasury Board?

[Robert Marleau]

It would be in Public Works.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So Public Works budgets allocate for all overhead when it comes to office space.

[Robert Marleau]

Right.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay. And that, again, I'm assuming is the same case for all....

So you guys don't really get charged back on a cash basis for any of the employee benefits. Is that correct?

[Robert Marleau]

Well, the employee benefits are actually charged to our budget and form part of the total salary envelope. But the contributions for the programs that we adhere to, such as dental plan, life insurance, and all those sorts of things, come out of the larger Treasury Board allocation.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Oh, cash is paid out of the Treasury Board.

[Robert Marleau]

That's right.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

But you take a charge, in a sense, on your statements for that.

[Robert Marleau]

Exactly.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay.

Another question I have for you is that we talked briefly about having an internal auditor, which we've requested that you have, under the law now. Does that change the need for the Auditor General's audit services?

[Robert Marleau]

No. The annual audit of the Auditor General is about how we spent the money we were allocated within the controls, and whether the controls are properly in place.

Internal audit will be another function through which we do things like risk assessments and various activities.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

It's not an accounting audit. It's an operational audit.

[Robert Marleau]

We'll be looking at, say, investigations and we may want to establish what risks we have and how we can mitigate those risks. We would do that by way of an internal audit.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

I could just add that if you look at that performance report you referred to earlier, there are audited financial statements. The officers of Parliament have all agreed that they will have their annual financial statements audited by the Auditor General. I think we're the only institutions in government that do that.

That is the service that's paid for here, or the annual audit of our financial statements.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay.

I am back to the full-time equivalents. If I am reading it correctly, about 57 full-time equivalents were forecast in 2006-07. Did that 57 end up being accurate?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

On the actual utilization, I think it was 57.

[Ruth McEwan, Director General, Corporate Services, Corporate Management Branch, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada]

Yes.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

We are estimating 90 for 2007-08.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

It's 78.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I have 90 here on page 8, which is why I'm confused.

[Robert Marleau]

On page 8, you have a figure of 90, which--

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

What does that include?

[Robert Marleau]

It includes the 12 that Treasury Board--