Throughout the year, we're doing environmental scanning. We're looking at the different program documents that are being developed to identify areas where internal audits or evaluations may be required.
When we get into the fall period, we take our environmental scanning and we do a review of all departmental documents. Then we send a questionnaire to all executives within the department. After that, we collate all of this information and we meet with every branch head. We get a detailed description of what their priorities are and what their risks are. After all these consultations, we go to our departmental audit committee with a draft list of projects. Those draft lists of projects are reviewed, and they provide advice. We go back and get advice from Treasury Board on some of those horizontal initiatives that we may not know of in our department.
We put this all together and we go back through the committee structure again—the departmental audit committee—which will review it and provide advice to the deputy minister on whether or not to approve it.