Well, I think we're here.... I was half-expecting to hear more from Monsieur St-Jean. We have a lot of issues, and I have mentioned about four of them that I think this committee is very interested in exploring. Mr. Fonberg gave an excellent presentation on the estimates process; I didn't detect anything new in that. All of that, of course, is important.
Mr. St-Jean, we just concluded a very important chapter on what I consider to be a dispute as to the treatment of an accounting issue. There didn't seem to be any protocol in government as to how this was to be handled. It was done in a very ad hoc way; it was not the way you would expect any kind of organized system to deal with this issue. We've tabled our report; it's well-known that this committee is not pleased with the way it was handled.
These are some of the issues. Of course one of the outcomes of this study, one of the most important items, is related to our expectation that the Federal Accountability Act will eventually become law. The day it becomes law, the deputy ministers and the agency heads of the crown corporations will all become accounting officers before this committee.
There are some in government who think that won't change anything--it'll just be business as usual. It won't mean anything. There are some of us actually around this table who think it will mean a fundamental change; that is one of the very important vital issues we want to get at. With that, there has to be the establishment of a protocol as to the duties of the deputies, the manner in which they come here, and what is expected of them. I would have thought that would be coming from the leadership of the Comptroller General. Of course, the committee has had all kinds of concerns over the years about the internal audit function; that's been a bone in our saddle for years.
These are some of the issues that we want to flesh out going forward in this particular study.
I turn it over to you before we go to the questions, Monsieur St-Jean.