Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you all, again, for coming—those who are new and those who've been through the drill before.
As I said at the time this report was tabled, I too in a previous life have had some experience being responsible for smaller entities and having them report to me. So I am aware of the challenges of trying to manage all of this and I understand the seriousness of it. But I have to tell you I'm a little disappointed with your response, Mr. Wouters, and I'll tell you why.
In your response today, you state on page 2 of your opening remarks that the Auditor General's “findings contribute to the work that is already underway to foster good governance throughout all our operations”. I hear that, and it sounds like your thinking is, oh, thank you for the nice little report; it helped us do some of the little we were hoping to get around to do. It just didn't sound like it was taken seriously.
And then what I read on page 8 was, “The reporting burden has been a long-standing issue”, which you then go on to explain. But there's no sense, Mr. Wouters, you're taking it seriously, that this is a problem that needs to be dealt with soon. I get the impression that you accept that it's a problem, but that it's going on and on and on.
Last, your conclusion was, “I believe we have come a long way towards achieving the right balance in our dealings with small entities...”. Yet that's just a response versus what you were faced with on page 16 of the Auditor General's report, a subheading that read, “The reporting burden is well known and long-standing”, and paragraph 2.53: “ The reporting burden is a long-standing issue. It has been pursued by the Small Agencies Administrators Network (SAAN or the Network) for many years, and was clearly defined in a series of studies commissioned in 2003, 2004, and 2007.”
The Auditor General also went on to say on page 17, in a subheading, that the “Actions taken to date have not substantively addressed the reporting burden”, and in paragraph 2.55, that “Five years after acknowledging that they have a role in reducing the reporting burden, the central agencies have not taken substantive action to reduce it.”
So help me to understand, Mr. Wouters, the serious issues the AG has raised and your rather lukewarm responses—and that's my word, “lukewarm”.