Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses.
I want to explore a little bit the relationship between the Office of the Auditor General and its work on legislative auditing—not only financial but performance auditing, or value-for-money auditing—and the internal audit function within the Government of Canada.
It is important for us all, as parliamentarians, to recognize that changes are occurring not only within the Office of the Auditor General, but there are also very significant changes occurring in the internal audit function across government.
The Comptroller General of Canada was before our committee, and I asked him whether he could outline for the committee exactly what cuts were about to occur or were occurring within the internal audit function. He explained to me that he could not tell us until after the budget. We haven't recalled him, but we would still like to get those numbers.
How would you describe the relationship between the Office of the Auditor General and the internal auditors within the various government departments? Do you piggyback on the work they do? What will be the consequence of cuts, not only to your own shop but to the internal audit function as well?
I'll frame it this way. The regional economic development agencies, such as Western Economic Diversification, CEDQ—for economic development in Quebec—FedNor, and others have completely eliminated the internal audit function. They are asking the Office of the Auditor General to pick up the slack. How do you do both? How do you cut your own office while taking up the slack from cuts to the internal audit function?