Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for being here, and for your excellent presentation.
As an external auditor in my previous life and then an internal auditor, I'm very concerned with risks. People don't realize that the Government of Canada is probably six times the size of IBM when the company was in its glory days. I take your point that you can't make people so risk-averse that innovation is curtailed. However, I am concerned about a few things ,and I wonder whether you can help me there.
As part of the Comptroller General's role of stewardship, accountability, transparency, and creating a risk management framework, could you advise this committee on what systems have been put in place, or are going to be put in place, to ensure that the Treasury Board vote 35, that $3 billion, is going to be properly used? Specifically, what governance structure will you put in place or has been put in place to ensure fairness in distribution across the regions? Since this vote item was urgent and was to fight recession, what measurements will be in place to ensure the current jobs we're trying to protect will be protected? What internal audit mechanism is in place to ensure that the money that is legally votable, that will end in June 2009, can be traceable?
People ask us those questions, and we who have supported the budget need to know these things. Please go with that, and if I have time, then I'll ask another question.
Thank you.