Okay. Thanks.
Evidence of meeting #116 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 accounts.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #116 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 accounts.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Do you have a problem with that? Is that an issue? Is it normal that it would be this long and still recorded...?
4:50 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General
Well, I think particularly with something like this, it comes down to.... I think this goes back to the question earlier on. To me, what it shows is that the government continues to work some of these files and, when possible, they can recover something. Here, it's a question of how in 2017-18 they were still able to recover $15,000, probably on a file that you would have expected they wouldn't be able to collect much more on.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you very much, Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Christopherson.
Mr. Arya.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to go to table 6.19 on page 172 of volume I. Under “Canadian Forces Superannuation Account”, there's one item for $1.8 billion that's called “Actuarial adjustment”. Is that because of the discount rate changes you've made? It's a significant amount.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Do we have the right page? We are at page 172. Under “Canadian Forces Superannuation Account”, he's referring to the third item under “Receipts and other credits”, which is an actuarial adjustment of $1.8 billion.
4:50 p.m.
Comptroller General of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I'll turn to my team. We're not sure if.... We have actuarial gains and losses when we revalue, and obviously the discount rate is part of that revaluation. Then we have to amortize these gains or losses over a duration or period, but we can definitely give you a bit more information on that particular number.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Thank you.
I would like to come back to these guarantees issued, in table 11.6 at page 354.
Mr. Rochon, you mentioned that the reason for this $281 billion in guarantees issued is to create a level playing field between the CMHC and the two private sector organizations.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
The entire $281 billion, that number, is mentioned on page 356. It goes to two companies: Genworth Financial and Canada Guaranty Mortgage.
4:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
Just to be clear, the $350 million is the maximum amount—
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
If you come to page 356, though, under the same heading of “Mortgage or Hypothecary Insurance Protection”, you mention that as of March 31, 2018, the guarantees under PRMHIA are estimated at $281 billion.
4:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
Right. Those are the guarantees in force. That's the total value of mortgages that those two companies have insured.
4:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
To be clear, the government is not providing $350 billion, actually, in this case, to those two companies.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
How much are the guarantees insured by the federal government, then?
4:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
It would be a combination of the guarantees for the private insurers of $350 million plus a $600-billion limit for the CMHC, so a total limit on the mortgage guarantees of $950 billion.
4:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
It's in volume I, table 11.8, on page 359.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Very quickly, Ms. Yip, and then Mr. McCauley will have the final question.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
In the OAG's commentary on the financial audits, it's mentioned that almost a third of all the management letter recommendations to federal organizations remain unresolved more than two years after being initially brought to organization management's attention. What can we do to have the government ensure that these recommendations are acted on by management in a timely and effective manner?
4:55 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General
Again, as we've talked about, when we do performance audits, there are lots of times when we don't see our recommendations being acted on. In the financial audit world, we see that the government does act on our recommendations. Most of them are dealt with within that two-year time period. I think what worries us the most about the outstanding ones again goes back to things like the access issue on IT systems and making sure that when we identify access issues, those are dealt with more quickly.
Some of these recommendations do take some time to implement. As of right now, I don't think we are particularly concerned with how long they are taking, but I think there needs to be more attention paid to the access issues on IT systems.