Madam Chair, that's quite comfortable. What goes around comes around; it will all balance out in the end. Thank you.
Welcome to our guests. I'll tell you, I'm pleased. I won't say I dreaded today, but I will tell you that I expected almost a textbook approach--accounting 101, etc.--and I'm actually very refreshed that you've brought some reality and some real-life application to this. Thank you very kindly for that. I'll just follow up on it.
I sensed that this could almost be simplified in a way into desirability--do we want to go there? The second portion would be the obstacles to making that happen.
Dealing with the first part, the position of desirability, I'm actually just going to quote a comment you just made, which I actually take great solace in, because I've personally listened to the Auditor General at great length--I certainly wouldn't say ad nauseam, but at great length--on this issue.
You said that accrual accounting really is “the best predictor of what will happen in the future”. In other words, with accurate information you are much more capable of making intelligent decisions. And for us, as a government making decisions, the more accurate our decisions are, the better our public is served.
So I think the desirability of accrual accounting is real, and I thank you for highlighting and accenting and cementing that process even more.
As well, you mentioned that the budget is the most important element worthy of government focus. I think most of us around this table are in concurrence and recognize that. So once again, thank you for that.
Then we come around to the second part of the equation--why haven't we done it? You mentioned a number of potential obstacles, the one, of course, being the intangible. You referred to it as change management, where people habitually, and just by nature of the beast, resent change.
I'm wondering, if I were just to ask you to, in your own mind, quantify.... We're going to discuss some real obstacles, but one real obstacle is just having an internal decision and an attitude to make that change. Do you think most of our problems of resistance to making this happen have been in an attitudinal direction, or have they been focused on the application of real problems?