Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Fraser, for giving us your time once again. Thank you also to your team—it is a pleasure to have you here.
At the beginning of your presentation you said:
An effective system to manage spending is essential to getting the results the government wants and to being accountable to Canadians for what is done on their behalf.
The government has fiduciary responsibility not only to taxpayers, but to Canadians in general. What you told us today is that we do not really have the information we require to fulfil our responsibilities. As an elected representative, I find myself, once again, concerned.
You also spoke about the supplementary estimates. If memory serves, they were first introduced in 1997. Since that time, there seems to have been a certain level of abuse in the way in which they are used, an abuse that did not exist between 1990 and 1997. However, I do have to be honest and admit that I have not read your predecessor's reports.
Is there a correlation between the surpluses with which we are all familiar—as much as I would like to, I will refrain from passing comments on the matter—and the availability of supplementary estimates?
The government acts very differently when there are surpluses. I think that the government should manage the public's money in a more responsible manner.