Evidence of meeting #104 for Public Accounts in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was deputy.
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5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
There may be some more questions, but it's in order to have a question or a motion if it's related to this. I haven't seen the motion, but please take some time and—
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
I just wrote it, so this is somewhat “drafty”. It reads, “That the Standing Committee on Public Accounts invite the Auditor General for a further meeting of one hour on his message, on the 14th of June, 2018, and that we give instructions to the analysts on the committee's report on the AG's chapter zero.
This would be in camera.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
Well, the instructions for the committee, yada yada. We have to do that in camera.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
Then we would cancel the invitation to the deputy minister for Thursday, for the—
5:10 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I have a point of order, Chair.
Just to be clear—because these things are happening in real time, if you will—I think that in fairness, we should invite the AG for up to the same length of time as we had the Clerk here today.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Yes, but not in response to what we heard here. We don't have an easy issue in front of us. I didn't want to limit the AG to an hour. If we can do it in an hour, fine; I don't want to stay longer than anybody else, but—
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
This Thursday, we have already invited and received acceptance from the minister responsible for Phoenix.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Right. It's not the minister, but the deputy minister. I would remind the committee that we have also stated very clearly in the past that we wanted to have them here before the break in the summer.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
What we stated very clearly is that we wanted to have the previous deputy ministers, who are coming, I believe, on June 19.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
There are some in Europe. There are some all around. There are some not even in Canada right now, so they're unavailable.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
I think that dealing with the message of the Auditor General is more important than dealing with specific chapters right now. This is what I brought. This is why we have Mr. Wernick here today. We are dealing with that famous chapter zero, which you don't like, but that is the name of the chapter. If we want to do this in the proper way, before we even go into the detailed chapters of each department, this—in my view, in our view—is what we should do. We should complete this chapter.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
We could invite the Auditor General on June 19 and keep the schedule that we've already accepted intact, rather than telling Phoenix, “No, you aren't needed.”
I think it's timely that we have Phoenix. When I did town hall meetings, my constituents wanted answers from Phoenix. We said we wanted those answers before summer, and that's why we invited them. They're able to come. We do have an opening on June 19 when we could have the Auditor General.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
Well, my point about Phoenix, which I've made before—this is not something new—is that we've had the current deputy minister. She cannot enlighten us on the chapter that the Auditor General brought to us. This is about previous decisions, not about what's happening now or in the future.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
We have had the current deputy minister dealing with Phoenix here on a previous chapter from the Auditor General—