Good morning, ladies and gentleman. We'll convene our meeting of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.
As one aspect of our mandate, we not only review the planned expenditures of various government departments and their estimates, but we also review the statutory programs. One of the recommendations made in a recent study we did as a committee was to do a better job of oversight as a committee; to commit to review all significant statutory spending at least once every four or eight years, I believe it was. Obviously, it's difficult to do more than that.
We're very pleased. This is the first attempt to provide this additional scrutiny to some of the statutory spending undertaken by the government, so we're very pleased today to welcome very much a blue ribbon panel dealing with the public service pension plan.
We're joined by representatives from the Treasury Board Secretariat: Ms. Kim Gowing, director of the pension and benefits sector; and Ernest Meszaros, senior adviser, pension and benefits sector.
Welcome, Ms. Gowing and Mr. Meszaros.
We also have, from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Jean-Claude Ménard, chief actuary.
Welcome, Mr. Ménard.
We also have Public Sector Pension Investment Board representatives Martin Leroux and Mark Boutet. I'll let them introduce their positions.
I understand that all three groups will have brief opening statements. I hope we have time for a thorough go-round to ask questions.
Proceeding in the order that we have them on our agenda, we'll invite Ms. Gowing, the director of the pension and benefits sector of the Treasury Board Secretariat, to make opening remarks.
Welcome, Ms. Gowing.