Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to continue on the topic of writing off debt, which was raised by my colleague opposite. This also relates to the comments by my colleague Ms. Mendès.
Looking more closely at volume III of the Public Accounts of Canada, we see that more than $4 billion dollars of debt were written off last year. It is roughly the same amount from year to year. Of course, even excluding the debt written off under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, $4 billion is still a substantial amount.
Mr. Matthews, could you elaborate on your answer by explaining what leads departments to write off a debt? How do departments decide to write off a debt?