Evidence of meeting #86 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was billion.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:15 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
We are among the lowest. I'd have to find the numbers for you. I'll—
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
11:15 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
I can get back to you probably later in this discussion, because I have it somewhere in my binder. I can certainly find it for you, but I would say that when we look at the largest economies, we are the second-lowest after Germany, I believe—
11:15 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
For gross debt, and for net debt, we are the lowest—
11:15 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
I think it's the G7. That's the number I'm quoting, yes.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
We're sort of second-best of a group of seven old, bad....
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Maybe you could get back to us, we can again see OECD....
On the allowance for doubtful accounts for corporate income for taxes up to $5.3 billion, what is driving that?
11:15 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Finance
I might turn to the comptroller general on the allowance for doubtful accounts on corporate income tax revenues.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Is that just a reflection of higher taxes? Is it that a higher tax is collected or is that reflecting difficulty in collecting some of these?
11:15 a.m.
Comptroller General of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
Yes, I'm pretty sure there has been an increase in the amount of taxes. Obviously, every year the Canada Revenue Agency has to go through a process by which they submit that provision. Also, the CRA, during the pandemic year, deviated some of their resources towards the delivery of certain of the COVID programs, so what we're seeing is a fallback of these resources towards the compliance work.
What you should see is a little bit of an increase in these amounts also due to that: the level of resources coming back and more attention being put on the collection.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you. I'm afraid that is your time, Mr. McCauley.
Now we go to Ms. Yip.
You have the floor for six minutes, please.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Congratulations, Mr. Forbes, on your appointment.
I'd like to thank the Auditor General and her team for this tremendous work. Look at it: It's so heavy.
Two hundred and sixty financial auditors...that's quite the team you have there.
My first question is, are Canada's public accounts free from political interference? Why does that matter?
11:15 a.m.
Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General
Is that for me or the comptroller general? I think the comptroller general is probably best placed to answer that question.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
11:15 a.m.
Comptroller General of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
Free of political interference.... Well, I'll speak for myself, to be honest.
I've been in this job for six years. I can say that it is a very technical exercise, and when I was a CFO in the department, I had the leisure of providing information from a departmental level and then again here. I can say that my experience is that I've never been pressured to play with the numbers.
I also don't think that would work with the Auditor General, who needs to review my numbers. When the Auditor General says there is an unqualified opinion, it's because it fairly represents actually where the money went. There's no material misstatement in there.
No, I can't say that I've been pressured in any way, shape or form to play with the numbers. Like I said, it's very, very technical. There are not a lot of people who actually understand all of this stuff, honestly. You have a couple of them right here and a couple of them right there....
I would say no.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
11:20 a.m.
Comptroller General of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
We need to produce the public accounts respecting public accounting standards. We have direction, and we have to follow these standards in preparing them, so deviating from that is not an option, or else we would get qualified.
11:20 a.m.
Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General
If I may, Mr. Chair, just to add to that, I am an independent audit office, and no one interferes in our work. We carry out our work in accordance with Canadian auditing standards and ensure that the financial statements meet the standards set for the public sector.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Okay.
Does your team, Mr. Huppé, audit every part of the public accounts?
November 23rd, 2023 / 11:20 a.m.
Comptroller General of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
We don't audit. She audits. I can tell you that the Auditor General obviously....
Correct me, but obviously everything in these public accounts is not audited. For example, in volume 3, there are informations that are produced, but everything that relates to the financial statements, the notes of the financial statements, everything you see in volume 2, that's all audited information. Her audit opinion is on basically the financial statements.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal