Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Chair, for having us. As my colleagues have said, it is a very important issue, and we have very much appreciated the discussion and the questions. So thank you very much.

Public Accounts committee  I have no information on the Department of Health. The department will probably be in a better position to provide you with this information. I apologize for not having this information with me today.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely. We will make a request to the Department of Health.

Public Accounts committee  In terms of it referring specifically to trusts, I know that it covers trusts. Absolutely. In terms of the policy, it basically, for example, talks about making sure there's a commitment to spend the funds for the purposes that have been identified and to identify the outcomes.

Public Accounts committee  Perhaps Mr. Morgan could address that.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Desnoyers. The new transfer policy also applies to transfers to international organizations. The same criteria we have here apply in that case.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Saxton, for that question. Yes, the new policy does look at the issue of transfers to other levels of government, including the provinces. The old policy didn't really address that specifically; the new one does. As you mentioned, Mr. Saxton, that is in force as of October 2008, and it does say that there are some specifics with regard to getting commitments on how the money is flowing, what it's to be used for, how it's to be reported on, and so forth.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Christopherson. Actually, this issue came up last year at the committee, and we did a little bit of work on what the provinces are recording. We went to the public accounts for a couple of provinces, including P.E.I., Ontario, and Quebec. I can provide these to the committee through a letter, Mr.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. As well, I would ask that my statement be shown as read into the record. As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, I do have with me today Mr. John Morgan, the assistant comptroller general, financial management and analysis. The Treasury Board approved a new transfer payment policy and related directive recently which took effect on October 1, 2008.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. This is actually information that the finance department has prepared. Again, I'm going from my recollection of the presentation that I saw the Deputy Minister of Finance provide. I would ask my colleagues to clarify this after this meeting and let you know if I don't have this quite right.

Public Accounts committee  When the GDP goes down--

Public Accounts committee  That's right.

Public Accounts committee  By April 1 of 2009 they are to have all of their committees in place, so that's about two months away.

Public Accounts committee  The latest I've heard is that 42 out of 46 will have their audit committees up and the three or four that won't will be a month or two after that. So it will be pretty close.