Madam Speaker, I too welcome this opportunity to rise in this House to speak to Bill C-245. Seeing that my colleague from the Reform Party chose to use his speaking time to talk about this, that and the other, the budget, the deficit, in fact, anything but his bill, I would like to briefly go over the content of this bill. I think it is important for all the hon. members of this House to understand what it is about.
First of all, the existing Auditor General Act states the mandate and lists almost all the duties of the Auditor General. He is the auditor of the accounts of Canada, including those relating to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. As such, he makes inquiries and examinations and then reports to the House of Commons as required by the act. He is responsible for auditing the expenditures made by the departments and Crown agencies. He must submit an annual report, naturally, on or before December 31 of each year. In addition, he was recently given the mandate of submitting more than one report. The Bloc Quebecois had asked for this and supported the proposal.
Obviously, the mandate of the Auditor General is commendable. His role consists mainly in checking how public funds are used and I would say that, so far, this neutral authority has carried out his duty.
You will understand that the performance of such duties requires a great deal of precision and accuracy. I realize that everyone is probably familiar with the act and the duties of the Auditor General, but it is useful nonetheless to refresh the memories of some hon. members.
The bill before us is intended to add to the already heavy workload of the Auditor General. In fact, clause 2 of the bill would extend the Auditor General's duties so that he would also become, listen to this, the auditor of the revenue estimates used in preparing the budget speech, for which the Minister of Finance is responsible.
It makes no sense. The Auditor General's role is to audit the public accounts. The member wants to add to this the auditing of the government's future revenues. The Auditor would thus be asked to forecast government revenues, as well as review all its spending. If that were so, the Auditor General would examine revenue projections. He would have to go to the very root of the assumptions made by the government.
The present mandate of analysing the expenditures of departments and agencies is not at all consistent with an additional mandate of estimating revenue.
Experience has shown us that the finance minister's estimates are often unrealistic. The present Minister of Finance is no exception. We cannot ask the Auditor General to assume responsibility for the analyses made by the Department of Finance. Overestimating revenues as a way of reducing the deficit is unacceptable. That is why the Minister of Finance must be satisfied with the quality of the estimates made by his department. The government cannot evade its duties and ask the Auditor General to do the job instead. This is the work of elected officials.
I would like to understand why the member for Fraser Valley West thinks that this task should be performed by the Auditor General, who we must say does not have the resources that the Department of Finance has to carry it out.
This would lead to duplication and overlap and of course additional expense. That is not how one reduces the deficit. Of course, the member for Fraser Valley West might mention clause 3, which says that after the Auditor General reviews the budget, he will report on the reasonableness of the estimated revenues used in preparing the budget speech.
It would not be easy for the Auditor General to determine what a reasonable revenue estimate is. As the Auditor General himself has said, it is hard to know whether the estimates are reasonable or not. Political considerations enter into it, but the Auditor General is supposed to be neutral.
Even if my colleagues in the Liberal Party think that their estimates are reasonable, I am sure that they will again have a strong tendency to overestimate revenues, but they will still have to answer for it to Parliament.
So, again, the Minister of Finance is responsible for the accuracy of the data presented in the budget. I stress that it is up to the Official Opposition, the other opposition parties and financial analysts to criticize the budget, especially its revenue projections.
There are several flaws in the analysis which led to this bill. It would make the Minister of Finance no longer responsible for the validity of his revenue estimates. The critical role of financial analysts and of the Official Opposition would be completely removed.
For these reasons, the Bloc Quebecois will not support this bill.
In closing, we will just say that everyone should do his own job and we will all be better off.