Public Accounts Committee on March 23rd, 2010

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I apologize that I was late getting here. If I repeat, just stop me.

This is to the auditor. The audit was done from 2004 to 2009. Were the recommendations in the previous audit all followed through, and are they now part of the audit recommendations for 2004 to 2009?

Finance, we have a backlog of amendments. Who will make the prioritization, and how is it done? I'm having trouble, because we're walking around this whole data question, of people not being trained. I don't understand that, because we hire people who should be trained to do things. Are those redundant ones just automatically pulled out, or do we have to just keep going down the list? It would seem to me that when we change legislation, the redundant ones automatically would somehow be pulled out.

Can you help me with that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Please provide brief answers to the respective questions.

[John Rossetti]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

In response to the member's question, we've never done an audit like this in the past. The only thing we did look at was comfort letters and the extent to which they were made public, and they are now available to the public. This is really a new audit for us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Our time is coming to a close.

I'm going to ask the witnesses if they have any closing comments before we adjourn the meeting, starting with you, Mr. Rossetti.

[John Rossetti]

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank the committee for looking at this issue. Obviously it's a complex one and it's going to take a little bit of time to resolve. We hope that over the long run we'll get back to the state we'd all like to be in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Mr. Horgan.

[Michael Horgan]

My only comment would be to thank the committee and as well to emphasize that from our point of view this is a very important issue and that it's important for Canadian taxpayers to have it resolved. The department is committed to doing its part to get it resolved.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Madam Lizotte-MacPherson.

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

Thank you.

I too would like to thank the committee for its time this morning, and certainly the positive feedback is also very much appreciated. We are very committed to the action plan and to working with our colleagues from the Department of Finance to support them in whatever way we can.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Okay.

On behalf of each member of the committee, I want to thank all of you for coming here today. It's certainly been an interesting meeting. This is a complicated issue, but it is on the other hand an extremely important issue. There are certain questions, and we hope they are resolved in the very near future. So again, thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.