Yasmin, you have the advantage of being an accountant. Not all of us are accountants. I was a finance guy, but we relied heavily on the accountants.
It is confusing as it is. In opposition we have limited resources. Individual members in their offices do not have a lot of legislative resources. I was very fortunate in opposition in having Tisha Ashton, who just loved the estimates process. There aren't many people like that. Over a long period of time, I got to understand them to a certain extent, although not as well as she did. All our parties have people in our offices and the leader's office who really love this process.
The idea is that we shouldn't need experts who understand and love this process. Every member of Parliament, and Canadians in general, should understand a process that is simple and is easier to understand. The process should be something that we can describe to any Canadian, both in terms of the sequencing and departmental reports.
There are thousands of people in departments across the Government of Canada who are writing reports that almost nobody reads. That's because they don't provide these reports. It's not their fault, by the way. The nature of the report now means that they spend a lot of time providing information that isn't that useful, that isn't of that high a quality, and that doesn't really reflect the basic departmental plans and departmental results. We want to change that part of it as well.
These are significant changes. I think smart members of Parliament from all parties struggle with this. It's not just opposition members who have the responsibility to hold government to account.