Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Hogan, your opening remarks were very interesting. I believe it's very important to have these kinds of meetings because, from time to time, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts wants to know how things are going at the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.
We're living in an era of higher-than-usual government spending. We've just gone through a pandemic, and it's not over yet. However, we're seeing more and more irregular spending. To say the least, we also live in an era of eroding trust in public institutions. The combination of those two factors means that the Office of the Auditor General's work critical for the future of Canadian democracy.
Today, members of the House are debating a motion introduced by the Conservative Party. The motion calls on the Auditor General to conduct a performance audit, including contracts, of all aspects of the ArriveCAN application, and to make this audit a priority.
The Auditor General could be asked to do several things. This example was chosen for sometimes dodgy reasons, but the Auditor General is being asked to do a job that really needs to be done right now, for the reasons I just gave.
We keep citing Roxham Road as an example, since contracts were awarded in a somewhat questionable manner there too. So the independence of the Office of the Auditor General is especially important.
I'd like to acknowledge your contribution to maintaining people's trust in public institutions. Your work is paramount. You also make departments accountable, which is crucial. I chose to say “departments” because a huge portion of what comes out of the federal government unfortunately goes through Crown corporations.
People have noticed that the government often uses Crown corporations to invest in projects that suit it. In other words, the projects don't necessarily go through the department and the government doesn't have the same level of accountability.
My team and I just reviewed reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including one on best practices in accountability.
Some countries have more advanced models, and I'll give some examples. Some people will be very happy because I'm going to read an excerpt from the the OECD report in English.
State-owned enterprises should be as transparent towards the general public as a publicly listed corporation is expected to be towards its shareholders.
This is my first question...
Madam Auditor General, what additional resources do you need to analyze the expenditures of the Crown corporations in the same way that you do for departments?