Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Brian Gear and I am the executive director at the Treasury Board Secretariat responsible for the Crown corporations centre of expertise. The centre of expertise provides advice and guidance on matters on governance, accountability and reporting. It also coordinates horizontal government-wide initiatives applicable to Crown corporations.
Mr. Chair, Parliament set out the governance framework for Crown corporations in the Financial Administration Act, part X, which places the board of directors to be accountable to Parliament through a responsible minister. In the case of the National Capital Commission, it is the Minister of Public Services and Procurement. The board of directors is responsible for the oversight of a Crown corporation's business activities, to act in the best interest of the corporation and to exercise due care and diligence. It is responsible for providing strategic direction, overseeing management performance and holding its management to account. Responsibility over the day-to-day operations of a Crown corporation is vested in a chief executive officer, who is accountable to the board of directors for the overall management and performance of the corporation.
Given their unique mandates and operating environments, Crown corporations are not subject to the financial, administrative, budgeting and human resource regimes that apply to departments. This provides them with the requisite managerial and administrative flexibility they need to be able to deliver on their mandates. These factors explain why Treasury Board oversight of Crown corporations is at a different level from that of departments, as Crown corporations have greater managerial autonomy.
Treasury Board's primary responsibility with respect to Crown corporation governance is the approval of corporate plans and operating and capital budgets on the recommendation of the responsible minister. To support its corporate plan responsibilities, Treasury Board makes regulations and the Treasury Board Secretariat issues high-level guidance with respect to the form and content of the plans, as well as the summaries of corporate plans and budgets. These summaries are then tabled in Parliament by the responsible minister following Treasury Board approval.
In its role of supporting Treasury Board, the secretariat reviews the corporate plan and capital and operating budgets that have been submitted by the responsible minister. The submissions are reviewed with questions that include the following: Do the activities articulated in the corporate plan and budgets align with the Crown corporation's mandate? Do the activities align with the government's overall policy and fiscal direction? Is the plan sustainable from a financial point of view?
Specific projects that fit within the mandate and broad activities approved in the corporate plan are not subject to Treasury Board scrutiny. As Mr. Ieraci explained, responsible ministers and portfolio lead departments have a role. As I said earlier, the board of directors has a primary oversight responsibility and the CEO is responsible for the day-to-day operations.
Finally, Crown corporations are accountable to Parliament through the board of directors and the responsible minister and report their plans and results to Parliament regularly.
With that, Mr. Chair, I'm available to answer your questions.
Thank you.