Thank you. I wanted to spend a few minutes to give the committee a sense of how we intend to respond to the findings of the Auditor General.
First, let me say that the management team of coast guard agrees fully with her report. Early last year, just after I had begun to act in the position of commissioner, I launched an A-base review to examine both how we were spending our money and our internal business practices.
We set up a dedicated team of people from all parts of coast guard and all regions to do this work over a six-month period. While I obviously knew that the Auditor General's staff would cover some of the same ground, I felt that a review of our A-base would look beyond the scope of the auditors, and take a broader look at our internal practices. This group reported out in September of last year. Their findings were very consistent with those of the Auditor General. Indeed they helped to inform her analysis.
Last September I appeared before this committee. I identified five multi-year priorities for coast guard that were reflected in our first business plan as an agency and indicated that, within each of these areas, we would identify specific actions and activities to be taken.
As you may recall the priorities were: full implementation of agency status; renewal of the fleet; steady progress on our various modernization initiatives; our on-going contribution to the security agenda; focus on our people, especially succession planning.
I believe these priorities provide a good framework for responding to the Auditor General's findings. I also agree completely with her observation that we tried to do everything at the same time with unrealistic timeframes and without ensuring that we had adequate human or financial resources assigned to complete the work.
That is why I would like to use our business plan as the vehicle to respond, so that we can put our response to the Auditor General's findings in the context of all our other business activities to ensure that we do not repeat the mistake of spreading ourselves too thin.
I will also provide regular progress reports to the minister and, through our business plan, to the Treasury Board. The plan is a public document, so it will be available for widespread scrutiny, including by this committee. I expect our next business plan to be ready by the end of April.
I've also taken a number of concrete actions that begin to address some of the issues identified by the Auditor General. For example, marine advisory boards, which are our principal consultative mechanism with the shipping industry, have been revitalized at both the national and regional levels. Already we've engaged in meaningful discussions on the issue of marine service fees, which have been a contentious issue for many years. This has helped us to re-engage with one of the primary users of our services.
We are in the process of establishing a parallel link with recreational boaters and commercial fishers through existing structures.
I have created a new group to focus exclusively on vessel procurement, a capacity that has not been in place in the coast guard for 20 years. We have also updated our fleet renewal plan. I've created a workforce development unit to establish a capacity for analysis and strategic thinking on how we manage and train our people.
I have taken a different approach to budgeting, which will bring more transparency to what we spend our moneys on, particularly for maintaining the fleet and for the results of the funding we received for federal on-water presence. Finally, I have increased the moneys we allocate for vessel refit and put in place a more structured planning process for how we do that work.
These measures are only a start, and I know that much more needs to be done. But I am confident that we are on the right track to building the strong national institution that we all want.
Let me conclude by emphasizing, as did the deputy minister, how proud I am of the professional and dedicated work of our employees.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes our opening remarks.