Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The situation of first nations and that of other governments do not differ greatly. First nations are governments. They therefore find themselves in the same position as other governments. They must use accountants and have an accountability framework in place, as far as relation

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I will respond in English. To have a statement of one amount per chief and council member that incorporates salary, expenses, and honoraria would lead a user to believe that the amount there is all salary, when in fact it's not all salary.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, the office is the auditor of a number of crown corporations, and I understand those financial statements are shown on websites of crown corporations. I'm not sure I can answer the question about the competitiveness of crown corporations. They tend to operate in an ar

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure, Mr. Chair, what the honourable member means by “implication”.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I think there are two aspects here that I'd like to address. Perhaps the first aspect is that within the communities, conflict of interest issues do arise. In the communities that I've had the chance to visit, they're often dealt with much in the same manner as they

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, we don't have that particular information.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I think that's probably a question that is best posed to departmental officials.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I think in terms of providing the best information to the users of the financial statements, it would be a good idea to separate salary from expenses from honoraria.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, according to the Public Sector Accounting Handbook, the business enterprises of a government would be consolidated into the financial statements. It would be consolidated on a modified equity basis, which means that the income would be shown, and the net assets. So it'

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's getting into a level of detail about PSAP that I don't have. I'm a lawyer by training, and what I've learned about accounting, I've learned from my colleagues and through my experience on the study group.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think the general accountability frameworks across governments tend to be quite similar.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not really in a position to be able to answer specific questions about all the other governments' financial statements.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, Mr. Chair, I think we have to start from the relationship between the first nations and the federal government. Under the grants and contributions agreements that first nations signed with the federal government, there are reporting requirements—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll take the federal perspective. It's the one I'm most knowledgeable about. First we look at it from a department's point of view. Departments develop reports on plans and priorities. They develop DPRs, the departmental program reports. They are responsible for maintaining the