The way that surplus number of $9.6 billion works its way through this statement is that the accumulated deficit, on the bottom of that page, went from $467 billion to $457 billion. If I call your attention to a point a little further up the page, to the line that says “total interest-bearing debt”, you'll find that the total debt of the Government of Canada on which we pay interest in fact declined by $18 billion.
That's the reason for the Auditor General's concern. To say that the surplus automatically goes to pay down debt isn't technically correct, because in this particular year the interest-bearing debt of the Government of Canada went down by an even further amount. In other years it could go up, even though you had a surplus.