Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I want to echo the remarks made by the chair. We really do appreciate and value the time you've taken to come here and share your experiences. Your presentations were very detailed, and they provide us further insight into this very complex matter. There's unanimity, I believe, in this committee as well, amongst many of the members, in the appreciation we have for full accrual accounting and its implementation, and the positive aspect of that.
I believe it was Mr. Bennett who alluded in his presentation to what the real benefits of that were, and I think there's consensus that it's a better basis for measurement of program expenditures, as you showed especially when you talked about comparing apples to apples, and a more comprehensive basis for legislative management control.
Obviously there's a recognition that we need to follow this path, but there are some challenges. I think we want to hear your view of what these challenges are. There are really three areas I'd like to talk about regarding the challenges that I think exist for us at the federal level and that we have discussed in the past when we have touched this subject matter--and it's been extensively discussed by other committees as well. I think the first has to do with culture. You alluded to this, Mr. McCarter, in your presentation. Is the mindset there in the departments? Do they have the motivation to go from cash to an accrual basis?
I think this ties into the second challenge we have, which is a systems challenge. I think it was mentioned as well that in B.C. you have one system for the departments to track financial information. I think it's the Oracle Financials system in British Columbia, and it's the same in Ontario.
The issue is that the culture is connected to the system as well, so that's another obstacle. Do you think it's in our best interests to work with the current system, or should we make a major overhaul, and will that truly drive the change? The impression I get in Ontario is it was really systems driven. I think when Oracle was put into place, it forced the issue and it forced the agenda. That's my interpretation. Maybe you can provide further clarification of that, and then I'll speak to the third issue with respect to appropriations and voting.
I don't want to ask too many questions at the beginning. The first one has to do with the call to training, and how you got around it and how you were able to address some of those issues, specifically the systems question, and what your recommendation to us would be, based on your experiences.
It's open to all three. Obviously from a B.C. perspective, you've taken a leadership role. You said you made upgrades to Oracle as well, so maybe you took a step-by-step approach that you might recommend for us as well in terms of a systems upgrade.