Finance committee  As I mentioned, we have a great deal of criteria when we choose a topic in order to examine it. The CERB is one that is a large monetary drain on the government. It has an impact on so many Canadians across the country and is one that unfortunately, as we're all aware, might have some activities that are fraudulent.

Finance committee  Absolutely. As you noted, it is from two fronts that we need it to be independent, not just for stability. There is an added complexity when you must turn to a department that you audit on a regular basis, both financially and through performance audits, and ask them for money. Obviously, there's a need to have it just be in a better realm, where there is no potential perceived or real conflict.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I think we need to be able to have the flexibility to plan right now in the short term. We do have a medium- and long-term plan. It's a little bit in flux, because the pandemic might evolve as we move forward, so I don't have a number or a target. Our intention is to look at what we think will add the most value and is the most important.

Finance committee  When you say “regularly”, do you mean with respect to performance audits? I guess I don't really see it much differently other than it came from an order in the House. It might be somewhat different in that some programs that we focus on are really within one department. This has a much more horizontal impact across many departments which might have a role in either establishing a program or rolling it out.

Finance committee  We have been engaged with our fellow supreme audit institutions across the world and within the country. I believe we have had several great conversations, and continuing ones, with the Australian National Audit Office, as well as the provincial auditor general offices. We do this regularly, and much more regularly now in the context of COVID, so we can benefit from best practices.

Finance committee  The audits you're referring to for Interpol and UNESCO are done on a cost recovery basis. They are the annual financial audits for those organizations, which we undertook after consultation with Global Affairs Canada many years ago. It is part of a strategy to ensure the Auditor General of Canada has a presence in standards setting, as well as in the international accounting community.

Finance committee  That operating system was one of our operating systems. It functioned very much like DOS and used F key functions to navigate across the screen. I'm very happy to tell you that a couple of weeks ago we transitioned off that system. It makes many of us happy that we don't have to keep our cheat sheet about what F2, F8 and F6 mean.

Finance committee  I did raise it, I guess, in order to provide a little bit of clarity to that. To go back to the motion, it did say all programs within COVID and all the audits that we were intending on doing. As an independent audit office, it's very important to be able to have the choice to audit what you want, when you want and to the extent that you want.

Finance committee  We're going to look at risk and at where we'll have the best impact and value, so yes, that is our intention. We just wanted to highlight that we can't look at what the motion said, which was all programs.

Finance committee  That's correct. It's my understanding right now that there have been no special warrants issued, but should there be, yes, there would be an audit there.

Finance committee  As a little clarification on that front, and an opportunity for me to let you all know, we did have a few audits ready to be tabled just before the pandemic struck. I wrote to the Clerk saying that on July 8 we will table those three reports that were sitting there. Then we had some audits that were ongoing, so they were expected to be tabled in the House in the fall of 2020.

Finance committee  You are correct. Back in 2017, there was an initial request made by Mr. Ferguson. Some funds were received in 2018. It was about a third of what was requested. Then the $10.8 million was part of the second tranche that Mr. Ferguson had been looking for. As you mentioned, that was following some mandates we received that were unfunded.

Finance committee  Three years is a very long time even without a pandemic in the middle of all that, so yes, it would be fair to say that it's significantly outdated.

Finance committee  I would absolutely agree with that statement. Many organizations are seeing some of the areas that maybe they would have not treated so well as being amplified throughout COVID-19, especially when it comes to the reliance on technology, the ability to connect and interact virtually with individuals we audit.

Finance committee  Obviously, as we sat back and looked at the scope of everything that's covered by the response to COVID, a few programs stand out because of the magnitude of the dollars associated with them. Dollar amount is just one factor we look at when we decide to select the audits we look at.