Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ms. Fraser, ladies and gentlemen.
First of all I would like to cite a passage from the Auditor General's report which appears on page 17 and which states, and I quote: “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.” If I understand correctly, the small agencies are being asked to do a lot, whereas they don't have the necessary tools—which are mentioned in your report—to solve the problem. Five years later, much of the work should have been done to address the problem we are faced with. The Treasury Board Secretariat, first of all, should have significantly reduced this reporting burden or everything that was requested in the context of that report, whereas we find ourselves in a situation where virtually nothing has been done.
The same is true when it comes to reducing the number of policies from 180 to 44. Still not much has been done, from what I understand, even in the report. There is still talk of doing these things, whereas an enormous amount of work to that end should have been done in the past five years.
Are there any deadlines? Has anyone started to develop something to eventually solve these problems? Is anyone going to establish an operating structure? You get the impression that people are saying that these are 51 small agencies, that it's only $300 million and that they don't really need to address the issue. That's sort of what emerges, to my mind, from the Auditor General's report. I want to hear what you have to say on that.
Are there any deadlines, a real work plan?