Certainly, if the Auditor General did not give a clean opinion, that would be a red flag. Happily, that has not currently been the case, and I hope it continues not to be the case.
One of the things I think the public accounts committee can do—and it's one of the reasons I favour timelier publication—is look at what the differences are between the budget projections and the bottom line on the public accounts, and also, relatedly, whether the government's accumulated deficit rose or fell by the same amount that you would expect when you see the bottom line. There are two potential gaps there. The projections could be wrong, or there could be restatements that happen at the end of the fiscal year, but they both amount to the same thing. They are gaps. They are wedges between what parliamentarians can control ahead of time and what the actual result is. I think that's very good work for the public accounts committee to do, to look at those two gaps.
