I do want to thank you. I understand that I've been allocated about 20 minutes to speak. I'm very mindful of the members' time, so I'll try to stick to that.
I do want to say that in preparing for this presentation, I've consulted with members of all parties on this committee and with people from the Library of Parliament as well, who have always been an incredible help. I also reviewed the transcript of June 22, the meeting that took place with Ned Franks and Jonathan Malloy, for some background.
I also want to mention that I've given you a copy of a capacity survey that we have written for public accounts committees, which I'd be very happy to refer to during our meeting—the document is available both in English and French—and at the end of the meeting I'll actually give you a document that highlights the survey results from our Public Accounts Committee Capacity Survey that we did across Canada.
To turn to the purpose of our visit here today, the
CCAF has developed a draft strategy, which I'd like to share with you, on how to maximize the effectiveness of public accounts committees. This draft strategy builds upon the findings of our guide, the CCAF's A Guide to Strengthening Public Accounts Committees. We presented this draft strategy to the public administration committee of the National Assembly of Quebec at the end of August, then at a joint session of the Canadian Council of Public Accounts Committees (CCPAC) and the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors (CCOLA) in September 2006. We've made several other presentations to other legislatures and are scheduled to do a few more in the fall and winter.
The purpose of making this presentation today is to engage members of the public accounts committees in a dialogue about how they can maximize the effectiveness of their public accounts committee.
We recognize the critical role played by public accounts committees in the Westminster system. Looking at the three predominant models of supreme audit institutions in the world, the Westminster system is the one that's most dependent upon Parliament to act on the reports of the Auditor General.
Ironically, as you all know, the success of a PAC in the Westminster system is highly dependent upon contingencies such as the electoral cycle, electoral landslides, politics, the type of issue being examined, the extent of turnover of committee members, and the extent to which committees follow up to ensure that the government has implemented its recommendations.
First, I'd like to say a few words about how the PAC study was organized.
A survey on various aspects of their work was sent out to the fourteen PACs in Canada -- one federal, ten provincial and three territorial. We compiled the replies, but chose not to single out any particularly jurisdiction.