Government Operations committee  You can also do it for other countries?

Government Operations committee  The Bank of Canada prints dollar bills! So you have to talk to the Bank of Canada people about security and counterfeiting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't heard of coin counterfeiting. From time to time, you can put a peso, for example, into a machine, but I haven't heard that there were any counterfeit one- or two-dollar pieces on the market.

Government Operations committee  I wasn't talking about you personally, Mr. Bennett. I was wondering whether, before hiring the new President and CEO, in this case, you, the board of directors had examined the contract, the position requirements and set adequate conditions, saying to themselves that this time it would be different.

Government Operations committee  You've only seen your own, haven't you? I had a question on the disclosure policy, but you answered it by pointing out that the information was available on the Internet. Like everyone in government, you first have to have that approved, then submit it within a given number of days, then it's posted on the Internet, which in itself is excellent.

Government Operations committee  As I told you earlier when I arrived, thank you for being here, Ms. Nadeau, Mr. Bennett and Mr. Neville. This meeting is further to, among other things, a previous meeting to which the committee — I say “the committee” on its behalf, because not all colleagues here present had the pleasure of being part of it at that time — had invited the former President and CEO to come and testify about certain situations prevailing at the time, and I will obviously only be talking about one.

Government Operations committee  Minister, our citizens are entitled to be served in the language of their choice, as long as there is a critical mass, but all your employees have the right to work in the language of their choice. Both sides have to be taken into account.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, madam Chair. There is going to be a vote and the meeting will have to stop anyway. Minister, Treasury Board is the employer for the public service. Are you in any way concerned, like several of us, by the present situation relating to official languages, forty years after the Act?

Government Operations committee  Do I have any time left? Thank you, Chair. In November 2006, when the Auditor General tabled her latest report, she also revealed her findings about the expenditure management system and we have had the pleasure of welcoming her several times since then. She said, among other things, that the expenditure management system has become less effective ever since we've had a budget surplus.

Government Operations committee  On the same topic, minister, one may ask why there were, from 1990 until about 1994-1995, not just layoffs but job cuts and a loss of human resources. If I am not mistaken, some 15,000 positions were abolished, with all the corresponding costs for severance pay and so on. Today, however, there are more public servants than before the elimination of those 15,000 positions.

Government Operations committee  In any case, I hope that your government will accept it because you and your colleagues in Cabinet constantly use that word — accountability — at Question Period and all the time. I have used the word “imputabilité” in French but it should be “responsabilité”. I think it would be an excellent way to implement this concept of accountability in the management of the taxpayers' money.

Government Operations committee  Thank you minister for being here with your officials whom we have already had the pleasure to meet in previous meetings. I will start with my short questions and will conclude with those that may require longer answers. You have raised several issues in your statement. About accrual accounting, the Auditor General has said several times — and I will paraphrase — that the issue has already been looked at many times in considerable detail.

Government Operations committee  Are you referring to chapter 4?

Government Operations committee  If I am not mistaken, you said that you were skeptical. I know that you choose your words carefully when you write a report. And in paragraph 4.15 of chapter 4 of your report, you state: No more than half of the employees at any [...] No more than half of the employees [...] Approximately half of the employees [...]

Government Operations committee  If people do not have faith in the system and do not buy into it, enacting C-2 will not change anything. The work has to be done on the inside; we have to look at values and how we can make people feel like an essential part of our larger whole. My last question is as follows: are internal audits still carried out in the majority of agencies and departments?

Government Operations committee  That in no way detracts from your work; we fully understand the difference between what you do and what they do. There is a role for them. Is it part of their responsibilities to disclose such matters a little before you disclose them in your annual reports? I find that very surprising.