I'd like to call the meeting to order. I want to welcome everyone here. Bienvenue à tous.
I want to especially welcome four representatives from the Treasury Board Secretariat. Colleagues, we have with us today Wayne G. Wouters, the secretary. Accompanying Mr. Wouters is Alister Smith, the assistant secretary, corporate priorities and planning; Mr. David Moloney, senior assistant secretary; and Linda Lizotte-MacPherson, the associate secretary.
Members, as you'll notice from your agenda, we have broken today's session into two sections. In the first one, which will last approximately one hour, we'll hear from the Treasury Board Secretariat. Then in approximately one hour's time we'll hear from two representatives from the Privy Council Office, and then one representative from the Treasury Board Secretariat again.
This is the continuation of our study into the relationship between the public accounts committee and the Treasury Board Secretariat. We certainly operate with similar arms. They are the executive; we're the parliamentary arm of government, but our mandates are not that dissimilar. Again, we're doing this with the expectation of the enactment of the Federal Accountability Act--the need to develop a protocol for deputy ministers appearing before the public accounts committee; the need to develop a dispute settlement mechanism; and the need to clarify the roles of the individual departments and to strengthen the capacity of the departments, especially in the areas of financial administration, and of course, the oversight role of the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Again, I want to welcome you. I want to thank you very much for being here. I'm going to turn the floor over to you, Mr. Wouters.