Very good. Thank you.
I think it was wise for you to take the time to do that as opposed to reading your statement, as important and informative as that is too. [See appendix]
I also just want to say at the outset, before we begin the rotation, that this is the committee that Canadians rely on to keep an eye on the treasury, both to make sure the money that's supposed to come into the treasury does and to monitor how it's spent and what it's spent on, as well as the proper procedures from within. We try to do this in as non-partisan a way as our DNA will allow.
It needs to be said—and I want to say it—that receiving the 16th clean audit in a row—and that takes in more than one party—says a lot about the way that finances are run in Canada. I can't say that so much about the political decisions; we make those in a different way.
Some of us have been to countries in which the money is stolen from the people before it even gets to the treasury. A clean audit at the very least, in my view, tells us as Canadians that we're not being ripped off, at least not in the same way that some countries have their treasury taken and siphoned off into a Swiss bank account or somewhere else offshore long before the people even know the money's there, let alone any risk of it being misspent
On behalf of all the members of the committee, and particularly on behalf of all Canadians, I want to thank all those who were involved in giving us what we call a “clean audit”, meaning that at least the macro-pieces of the money that this nation has and should have in our treasury are there. Then we can start dealing with some of the details of how that money is spent and whether or not it was spent appropriately.
At the very least it's good to know that our treasury is not being stolen, ripped off, or diverted, and that the money that should be there is there.
I just want to say in a non-partisan way, as the chair of the committee, that we're very proud of all those who played a role in giving us that reputation. We're proud of our reputation, and you're the ones who, day to day, give us that. So thank you all very, very much for any role that anyone has played in giving us that clean audit.
That's the good news. We will now move on from there, starting with our first vice-chair, John Carmichael.
Sir, you have the floor now.