Good afternoon, everyone. This is meeting number 59 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Wednesday, May 17, 2017.
I remind everyone that we are televised today. I will also mention that because we have been interrupted with two votes already, we are approximately 45 minutes behind, so we're going to adjust somewhat the time periods in the questioning and cut those back, but everyone will still get a chance. We can perhaps see what happens at “quittin' time” too, and whether we want to stretch it out a little longer, but we're scheduled to go until 5:30.
Today we are beginning our consideration of the spring 2017 reports of the Auditor General of Canada.
Our witnesses are from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. We welcome Mr. Michael Ferguson, the Auditor General of Canada, and his team of professionals. He has with him here today Joanne Butler, principal; Richard Domingue, principal; Andrew Hayes, principal; and Nicholas Swales, principal. They are all part of his team and are prepared to answer questions from our members.
I would invite the Auditor General at this time to proceed with an opening statement before we proceed to the rounds of questioning.
Mr. Ferguson, go ahead, please.