This is going to get into the details of accounting standards in Canada.
The crown corporations in Canada, pursuant to the Financial Administration Act that was first passed in 1984, were required to prepare their financial statements in accordance with what was called “generally accepted accounting principles in Canada”. In 1984, generally accepted accounting principles in Canada existed only in private sector standards, private sector accounting standards for commercial enterprises. So crown corporations in 1984 were legislated to follow the same accounting standards that apply to commercial enterprises in the private sector.
Since then, the Public Sector Accounting Board, on which both the Comptroller General and I are members, has become far more active. We now have generally accepted accounting standards for governments as well. So with respect to these financial statements, they're prepared in accordance with public sector government accounting standards set by the Public Sector Accounting Board of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
With respect to the private sector and the crown corporations, they follow commercial standards, and the commercial standards are harmonizing or converging towards international accounting standards set by the International Accounting Standards Board. Those standards are called IFRS, international financial reporting standards. So most crown corporations, or at this point, all crown corporations in Canada, will be moving towards adopting those standards for year-ends in 2011, as I recall. The issue, however, is under study by the Public Sector Accounting Board. There is some move afoot to suggest that perhaps some crown corporations shouldn't follow those international standards but should continue to follow Canadian standards.
So at present there are basically two sets of standards that are followed by government organizations in Canada: CICA standards, which will eventually converge towards IFRS; and public sector accounting standards that are used by the government.