Thank you, Chair.
First of all, welcome to our guests.
I represent a city in Ontario, one of the major industrial centres. More importantly, I've had the pleasure of being in your beautiful country. I was there in 2007 as an international election monitor for your national elections.
It was a beautiful city, with beautiful people and wonderful hospitality. I'm glad we have an opportunity to give back a small amount of the welcome and warmth I received when I was in your country.
I'm aware of many of the challenges you have. It's encouraging to see you here because we believe this to be one of the cornerstones of accountable democracy.
If I may just underscore our chair's comments, the fact that an opposition member, by the rules, has to chair this committee, and the fact that the Auditor General is completely at arm's length from the government are, again, part of the key foundations of what we do.
Although we're made up of members from different parties, one of the things we try to do is encourage a culture among ourselves whereby we agree on our findings wherever possible. That's much easier said than done, as you can appreciate.
But one of the reasons this works is that without that culture.... No one really knows for sure who the government will be at the time the report from the Auditor General lands in front of us, so if you're the opposition today, being at least respectful and fair with the government is smart, because the shoe may be on the other foot next time around.
Lastly, therefore, when we do agree on an observation or a recommendation, it carries that much more weight, because it is coming from all of us working together as parliamentarians, not partisans.
Thank you.