This is the first time I've been able to interject and speak on this committee. It's a new committee for me, after I was on the finance committee in the prior session of Parliament for the full duration.
It is, for me, an interesting committee, because you look at the way government operates and how government finances are set. We have a budget that comes out on an annual basis with some updates that occur when necessary, usually in a fall economic update. Then you have the estimates, which are basically government spending money or implementing policy from the budget and budget legislation. Then you have—to my understanding—the Auditor General, who looks at the programs that the government operates and comes back and provides valuable information to parliamentarians, and not only to parliamentarians but also to Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
I thank you for your work and for looking at programs that government delivers in various ways to Canadians and the departments that fall under the government purview.
You mentioned an independent funding mechanism, which has been requested, and you can clarify my remarks if I've strayed off. Is that the case in other jurisdictions? Is there an independent funding mechanism in place where there is an auditor general or a comptroller—if I can use that term—in other jurisdictions? Is that in place in other areas?