Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Auditor General in his report to Parliament states: This lack of reporting means that parliamentarians and Canadians do not have all the relevant information to understand the long-term impact of budgets on the federal...governments in order to support public debate and to hold the government to account.
I'll note that the Department of Finance in its action plan that was tabled with the committee has indicated that they will indeed this year provide the minister with long-term fiscal sustainability analyses to budgetary proposals before the budget is actually drafted and tabled. That's a commitment that the department has given to not only the minister, but to us as well.
There is a presumption that in order for this information to be valuable to parliamentarians, it has to be delivered before a decision on appropriation is made by Parliament.
Would you agree, Ms. Cheng, that in order for this to be valuable, that information.... As the Auditor General says to us that there is a disconnect, that there is a problem that parliamentarians don't have this information, would you agree, and do you think the Auditor General of Canada would agree, that having this type of information available to the minister is important? Also, given the fact that parliamentarians are the ones who openly vote and appropriate these resources, would it be valuable for Parliament to have this information before such votes are taken?