Evidence of meeting #45 for Public Accounts in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was stewart.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
That must have triggered you to look at other agencies at that point, or—
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
We had already started, after the audit of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, to realize that as an office we were not doing enough work in the small agencies, that our work tended to be focused mainly on the large departments.
In 2004 we created a special unit within the office to do work only on what are known as the small agencies. We've done some audits in there. For example, the audit of Elections Canada was part of it, and we have an audit under way right now on three of the smaller agencies, as well as the other piece I mentioned on governance.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
The ultimate responsibility with regard to audits was with your office, I would imagine?
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
Did you normally audit every two years, three years? Was there some kind of rotating basis?
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Among the small agencies—I'll be quite honest—there are many that we have never audited.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Even among large departments, we will do about 30 audits a year. There are some departments we will always have audits in, such as, for example, National Defence or Canada Revenue Agency. But there are, on their own, something on the order of 90 small agencies, so we would never do it.
That was why we were pleased when the Office of the Comptroller General established the internal audit function, so that they could as well do the broader management audit, which I think is a more effective way of going about it than having the external auditor doing them.
Liberal
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Stewart, I think you claimed earlier that you had no contact from any of the departments, no training whatsoever when you started?
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Nothing.
Does anyone here have any contention with that, based on your own information, that there was any...? There is no contention with that?
It seems pretty amazing to me that you wouldn't have had any kind of training or any people coming to talk to you and explain some of these things to you. I'm wondering, how did you even know when you took on this position that you were even qualified for it, if you didn't really talk to anybody about what it was you were supposed to be doing and how you were supposed to be reporting?
Former Correctional Investigator, As an Individual
Could you repeat that, please?
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
How did you even know you were qualified for the job? You were kind of in nowhere land, it sounds like. You didn't have people talking to you about what you were supposed to be doing or how you were supposed to be reporting.
Former Correctional Investigator, As an Individual
I don't know how you would get previous training to go into a cell with Clifford Olson and sit and talk to him about a problem he had. You just did it. That was what the job entailed and you did it.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
That seems a little odd to me. I don't know if it would seem very odd to anyone else.
Former Correctional Investigator, As an Individual
I don't think there's any training you could have had, unless you worked for the Correctional Service.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
When it came to the human resources side and the reporting, just simply recording your vacation time and what was okay and what wasn't, if you had questions, why didn't you ask someone? You're a pretty smart guy; you're a lawyer, I think. Didn't you ever ask yourself the question, hey, this job seems pretty easy.... Why didn't you ask someone?
Former Correctional Investigator, As an Individual
It was an independent agency. I ran it to the best of my ability.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
But if you knew your training wasn't up to snuff, if you knew you didn't have abilities in certain areas, and if you recognized that people hadn't come to you telling you things that you thought maybe you should know...didn't you think that maybe it was a little too independent?
Former Correctional Investigator, As an Individual
I don't think that ever crossed my mind, no.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Changing direction a little bit, earlier you talked about attending to your business on a needs basis, is how you referred to it. I'm curious, if you're at your cottage on an island, with no electricity and no telephone, how would people even reach you if they had needs? By kayak or canoe?
Former Correctional Investigator, As an Individual
If I could take some of your time....
Mr. Chairman, could I answer that, please?
