Mr. Chairman, if I may, perhaps I'd make two comments.
Firstly, I don't recall being personally consulted on the Treasury Board policy on internal control--I don't know if Ms. Cheng was consulted--but I think we were aware that the government was working in that direction. I do not recall that the office formally commented on the policy or if any formal consultations took place.
Perhaps I can also comment, Mr. Chairman, just very briefly, on the question posed about the value of an audit of those departmental financial statements. If I could give my one-sentence answer to that question, it would be that the Auditor General has indicated that she will audit departmental financial statements, if this is a government priority, when the departments are ready to sustain a controls-based audit.
So the value in that audit, then, would be the independent validation that the controls in that department are of sufficient rigour and robustness to support a controls-based audit, that the controls are there at a level of materiality relevant to that department.
I think that's the short answer to that question.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.