Good morning, everyone. Welcome. This is meeting number 78 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and it's Thursday, November 9, 2017.
I will remind all committee members and guests with us and those in the audience that today we are televised, so I would encourage you to mute your cellphones or other communication devices.
Today we are studying “Report 2, Custom Duties” from the spring 2017 reports of the Auditor General of Canada.
As our witnesses, we have this morning, from the Office of the Auditor General, Mr. Michael Ferguson, the Auditor General of Canada, and Richard Domingue, principal.
I know I'll embarrass him, but I'll also say that Mr. Domingue will be retiring in a few weeks, and this will be his last visit to committee. Mr. Domingue started his career at the Library of Parliament in 1988 as an analyst on the House of Commons finance committee. He also worked as an analyst on the public accounts committee in the early 1990s, and in 1999 he joined the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. Mr. Domingue's audits touch mostly on financial and economic areas, such as long-term fiscal sustainability and public sector pension plans. He has appeared more than 20 times before various House of Commons and Senate committees over the years, including a dozen times before the public accounts committee. Thank you for being here today, and we wish you all the best in the future.
We have, from Canada Border Services Agency, Mr. John Ossowski, president; and Brad Loynachan, director of trade policy.
From the Department of Finance, we have Mr. Rick Stewart, assistant deputy minister, international trade and finance branch; and Scott Winter, chief, international trade policy division, trade and tariff policy, international trade and finance branch.
From the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, we have Mr. Steve Verheul, assistant deputy minister, trade policy negotiations.
We have a number of opening statements, so for that reason we want to begin right away.
We'll first turn to our Auditor General, Mr. Ferguson.