Sure. Thank you for the question.
I'll start with the broad similarities and then go into some specific differences.
The actual idea for quarterly financial reports from departments originated in the Senate with a private member's bill by Senator Segal, if I recall correctly. His whole notion was that the government should be like the private sector from an investment perspective. If you hold stocks in the private sector, investments, you look to see the quarterly results of that company. When he looked at the federal scene, what he saw was a federal budget, which is planning information, financial statements at the end of the year, plans for each department to start the year, and results at the end of the year, but nothing in the middle of the year, except a monthly report from the Department of Finance. It was whole of government. When you were looking for information on department by department during the year, you couldn't find anything.
That was the whole premise. The government picked it up in a piece of legislation and put the requirements for quarterly reports right into legislation.
The similarities are that basically you have a financial report and a narrative or discussion and analysis that explain what's going on in that quarter. It explains the current quarter versus the same quarter in the previous year. It also looks at year-to-date numbers, current year versus previous year. Those are the similarities.
The difference is that in the government, Parliament votes on department funds. When we're preparing the quarterly financial statement requirements, we thought it would be more relevant for Parliament to know how departments are spending the funds that Parliament had voted to it, so they're appropriation-based. That's the big difference.
If you go to the private sector, you would see a full set of full accrual financial statements, balance sheets, statements of revenue and expenses, comprehensive income. It's more onerous, to be honest. The other more onerous piece in the private sector is, because there are investments riding on the line, there is a degree of assurance provided from the auditors; whereas in the federal government these quarterly financial statements are made public, they are not looked at by the Auditor General in terms of any types of insurance.
That's the quick answer.