Mr. Chairman, I sat on the committee that reviewed accrual accounting. This committee produced a report and received a letter from the President of Treasury Board saying that it intended to apply accrual accounting. In a letter the Auditor General advised the committee to make sure that the implemented planning included indicators of time and performance, because there was an issue. Treasury Board said that it could not implement accrual accounting in less than five or ten years, whereas the committee, after more than 15 years of study, requested that it be implemented on a regular basis. Therefore, it is up to this committee to ensure that time and performance indicators be provided to it so that the implementation of accrual accounting be done in three or five years instead of ten years.
On March 24th, 2009. See this statement in context.