Thank you very much, Mr. Drouin.
By the way, I would like to acknowledge your important work once again.
Here, the key words are “effectiveness” and “transparency”. As we know very well, there is a problem that goes back to the beginning of Confederation, I believe. It is a problem of alignment between the budget process and the estimates process. That leads to a disconnect between the information you have access to when it is time to consider estimates and the tabling of an annual budget, such as that of the Department of Finance.
That disconnect has been explored over the past few years, including through the pilot project you mentioned. We have learned important lessons from that pilot project. In parallel to those lessons learned, we have also implemented significant measures to increase both effectiveness and transparency.
By the way, I want to mention the directive on results that was submitted not even two years ago, in 2017, which increases transparency, so it makes is easier for you to understand those two work methods. We call it the exercise method for the Minister of Finance, and the accountability method for the estimates process.
In English, this is called “accrual and cash”.
It cleary creates difficulties in the work you wish to do as parliamentarians.
As you know, we have implemented a database, GC InfoBase. It is an extraordinary database that I invite you to use fully. It gives increasingly transparent and accessible details, not only on expenditures, but also on implications in terms of the Canadian government's resource management. We also have executives who are working both on departmental planning and results. I actually submitted the departmental results for 87 departments and agencies yesterday.
So there is a lot of information that supports the lessons we have learned from the pilot project.