Thank you.
Good afternoon Mr. Chair, vice-chairs and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today, our first official appearance of the 43rd Parliament before this committee. We are pleased to be here today to discuss the committee's study on corporate subsidies.
As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, with me today I have Jason Jacques, director general, casting and budgetary analysis. I take credit for the good work and often assign blame to him for mistakes we might make. It hasn't happened yet, but if it does, that's a big part of the arrangement Jason and I have.
Under the Parliament of Canada Act, I am mandated to support Parliament by providing analysis of macro-economic and fiscal policy for the purposes of raising the quality of parliamentary debate and promoting greater budget transparency and accountability.
Some of you may know that the act also states that this committee can request that I undertake research into and analysis of matters relating to the nation's finances or economy. This special legislative provision is only available to the four committees listed in the act, which in addition to this committee, include the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance; the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts; and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.
In the 42nd Parliament, this committee benefited from this legislative provision by passing a motion to engage my office to prepare a regular economic and fiscal outlook. These types of motions not only allow my office to provide advance notice of the publication to facilitate committee scheduling and follow-up but also more importantly allow us to share our reports with committee members under embargo prior to publication, which provides members with the opportunity to conduct early in-depth analysis and review.
Jason and I will be pleased to discuss any suggestions you may have regarding how my office can best serve and support the work of this committee for this study and throughout the 43rd Parliament.
Although my office has not published any specific analysis of corporate subsidies, Jason and I will be pleased to answer your questions on this topic or any other issues of interest to the committee.
Thank you.