On the question of the Auditor General, we have a system where Parliament is involved in three areas when it comes to public money. One is before the fact, and that's in the finance committee, in its pre-budget consultations and discussions. That has worked very interestingly. In my view, ministers of finance have listened to what has been reported out of that committee and what has been done before the budget. It has had some indirect and subtle impact.
At the back end of the process we have the Auditor General. The Auditor General is a long-standing tradition in our country, a key part of parliamentary democracy in holding governments to account. We have a public accounts committee. All of that handles things after the fact.
The question is, as we see those dilemmas what do we learn and how does it get incorporated back into the system?
Squeezed between those two beginnings, the front and back bookends, is the estimates process, which approves and reviews the estimates and the business of supply. Your sentiment of trying to increase the learnings both from the front end of the process and the back end of the process particularly—back into the appropriations process—I think would be a very good idea. I support what you've said.
Just how that is done, I think, requires expertise and skill. I think some of my recommendations would indirectly help in that, including permanent membership on the committees, support from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, making sure budget items are included in the estimates, aligning the vote structure in a better way with the activity structure, and also ensuring that we handle expenditure reviews in a focused manner.