Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
I appreciate this opportunity to come before you today to answer questions and address the issues raised in the Auditor General's report of February 2007.
You have introduced my colleagues, but with me are commissioner George Da Pont, and la sous-commissaire, Monsieur Charles Gadula.
Let me start by indicating that both the commissioner and I fully accept the findings of the Auditor General. I will also state that Minister Hearn has given us clear direction to deal with these issues. He has asked that we develop a realistic plan for responding, assign clear responsibilities and timeframes for the follow-up actions, and that we provide him with regular progress reports. The coast guard has done this through the development of an integrated and comprehensive business plan that establishes the priorities, sets clear accountabilities and timeframes, and allocates the resources required to ensure the commitments can be implemented, not just for dealing with the issues raised by the Auditor General, which are important, but also for the full range of its programs and services.
In addition, the coast guard will provide the minister with a detailed progress report on its business plan twice a year, one in the fall as part of the mid-year review, and one in the spring after the close of the fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, as Mr. Wiersema has said, the coast guard business plan and its first mid-year review from last fall have been tabled with this committee. They have also been shared with the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, the Office of the Auditor General, the Treasury Board Secretariat and the main users of coast guard programs and services. In addition, both are available to the general public on the coast guard website.
The minister, the department and the coast guard are all committed to full transparency and accountability both for the programs and services that the coast guard delivers and for addressing effectively the issues raised by the Auditor General. The general feedback that we have received so far indicates that we are on the right track and that the plan provides a good framework for responding to the Auditor General's findings, within a reasonable timeframe.
This is clearly indicated in the overview that is provided in the status report. What has been done is in green, what is to be done is in yellow, and the deadlines or outcomes that have only been partially completed are identified in red. We are, in fact, very transparent.
Addressing the findings of the Auditor General will take time, as many of the management measures, especially those relating to the standardization of business practices, will require, and are requiring, significant cultural change within the agency. In fact, we anticipate that it will take three to four years to fully address all the issues that have been raised. However, progress has been made on a number of fronts, and the commissioner and his management team and I are committed to the coast guard becoming the strong national institution that Canadians deserve.
Commissioner Da Pont will now briefly set out some of the key initiatives that are under way to respond to the Auditor General's report.