Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I do have a statement that I will go through. We have copies that are available both in French and in English for members of the committee to consume, either during or afterwards. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity today. I woul

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —you would hope. Finance Services provides policy advice to the board, makes payments of members' claims after verifying compliance with policy and regulation, provides support and advice to members through training and communication initiatives directed towards members and the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The answer to that question is yes, that anything is absolutely doable. There would be no trouble in doing that. The board has been reluctant in going in that direction, and we have been reluctant in recommending that. Personally, I feel that if we were to

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The position we have advanced today is really one in which we would perhaps supplement the Board of Internal Economy with some external advisers. I think doing so would in fact address a number of issues. Mr. Lamoureux, if you look at the number of exceptions that are requested

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, every year since 2004-05, I think, the financial statements of the House have been audited. We have an external auditor, KPMG. The financial statements, which include all of the activities of the House, are consolidated, and KPMG expresses an opinion on those financial sta

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I might suggest, Mr. Chair, that if you look at the mandate that was given to the Auditor General with respect to the audit of the House, it was to see how the House administration supports members in their functions. You can imagine, then, that a performance audit of a particula

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. In my previous testimony, Mr. Chair, I spoke to the number of regret letters that are sent. I quoted a figure of just over 4,300. Those letters are sent to members when there is a difference between the payment we make to the member and the amount that was claimed.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Clerk was saying, we did spend a few days speaking both to the House and to IPSA. Most of our questions for them were around the transition and the level of effort that was involved in it. The impression I came back with from those meetings was that

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. Basically, Mr. Chair, the way I understand the question is, what would be the guide to proceed if we decided to go along this particular route?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First of all, let me say that I think the 21 people in Finance Services who do the work of the adjudication of the claims would have to be moved over, out of the Finance Services of the House, and then basically replicate in the new agency what they do here. That can be done with

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They have 57 members.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  But they would need to be supported, as I was saying a little earlier, by other infrastructure. They would need to be housed in a facility. They would need to have the support of a human resources department, or they would have to be able to buy that service from somewhere else.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct. I do.