As to whether there is a will to do it, first I'll tell you about my responsibilities, which, among other things, are to ensure that the president of the Treasury Board presents budget estimates and appropriations to Parliament in a form that is comprehensible, full, valid and useful to parliamentarians. I'm also responsible for offering government advice on conducting good, even better management of its finances.
As regards timeframes, these changes were clearly complex. The government took seven years, from 1996 to 2003, to implement reporting systems and to decide how to organize and present the data in the context of the public accounts. A decision was made, that it should proceed by stages in order to better understand how to present the data, on one hand, and, on the other hand, to decide whether it was appropriate to structure appropriations based on that other accounting process. From my part, I was not working at the Treasury Board Secretariat at that time.
We want to ensure that budgets and estimates are useful and well structured, even if basic questions still arise. I've been in my position for one year, and, like Mr. St-Jean, I have undertaken to ensure that the president of the Treasury Board is able to make a decision.