Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Matthews, you talked about a downtime. However, I have the impression that you are treading water and that cosmetic changes have been made, that what already existed is being made better use of, but that, essentially, investments will eventually be made in the modernization of accounting systems and that will be the end of it. That is the impression I got from your message today.
I would like to go back to the continuum relating to estimates. The government spends money, but in the final analysis, we are trying to see what is being done. That is the information that was mentioned. You talked about monitoring, either by parliamentarians, yourself, or Treasury Board. However, at the end of the cycle there must also be accountability. In other words, do we really know what we voted on? Did we spend money in an efficient and effective way? We are talking about the information-efficiency-effectiveness continuum. If we set the technical vocabulary aside, we can say that the objective of all this is to be able to answer questions concerning those three aspects correctly. If we stop there, I really think that we will only have done half the work needed to give us a better overall understanding.
I agree with my colleague that we must not micromanage. That is quite correct. However, you were talking to me about strategic outcomes, but the departments already refer to them in the reports on plans and priorities. Is that not the case? You tell me that there are no more horizontal programs. However, at the local level, the departments already have horizontal programs related to departmental strategic outcomes.
My question is quite simple. You are asking for funds to modify and modernize the accounting systems. You tell us that strategic outcomes are the way of the future. With regard to what exists currently, what more do you need to attain your objectives? Does the Government of Canada, through the Treasury Board Secretariat, want to manage all the activities strictly on the basis of mega-strategic outcomes?