Colleagues, I now declare meeting 42 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts in order.
I have a couple of minor business matters before we begin.
At 4:30 it will be necessary for me to leave the chair; something else has come up. Given the fact that the vice-chair is the person who selected this chapter it would tie the hands of Ms. Jones, so I bypassed her in filling in that last hour. I hope that's okay. I assumed she'd rather be there asking questions. So I've asked Mr. Hayes, who although not a vice-chair is a veteran of the committee, if he would fill in for that last hour, and he's agreed. I hope the committee finds that acceptable.
As you know, we're here for chapter 6, transfer payments programs—CanNor, of the spring 2014 report of the Auditor General of Canada.
Before we turn our minds to that, I want to take one moment on behalf of the committee to recognize publicly the fact that Jocelyne Therrien is leaving in January. She of course is the principal of parliamentary liaison at the Office of the Auditor General. We know her as the person who makes the body of the work of the Auditor General actually work.
Jocelyne, in this whole process, you're one of those folks who don't get a lot of attention. Not everybody outside of those of us who are here every day see the work you do, but you've made an outstanding contribution. I want to thank you so much on behalf of all the committees that have had the honour to work with you. May I say how lucky I think the Auditors General have been to have had you in that role. Thank you so much for your service to Canada, to the business of public accounts, and to the work of the Auditor General. We wish you the very long and happy retirement you so richly deserve. All the best.