Government Operations committee  The consultants have experience in reviewing internal processes, operations and operational costs. Over the years, there has been a tendency to increase the number of people every time there is a new program, to do more or less the same thing.

Government Operations committee  There is no target. We are doing it to help us develop the necessary methodologies for making the best proposals for reducing operational expenditures, eliminating redundancies and consolidating everything to establish standards for our processes.

Government Operations committee  We are trying to establish best practices.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. The Auditor General's proposals are really to look at.... They audit, for example, whether the reports have been produced to meet a standard. In those instances, the Auditor General is not removing himself or herself from a performance audit. On the contrary, they've

Government Operations committee  For example, one of the elements is how departments report on horizontal activity. The economic action plan had some elements that were cross-cutting. We are working with departments so that they can be as precise as possible—and in fact, you are finding some of the results of th

Government Operations committee  It's the horizontal activities, where there are more than one—

Government Operations committee  Excuse me?

Government Operations committee  Thank you. One thing that it is important to know is that ordinarily the estimates are tabled very shortly after the budget. So the recurring initiatives or new initiatives for which departments get funds cannot be presented in time for the main estimates, because the budget is

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some time was needed for projects and project development to be done, to meet the criteria. Within those funds there are initiatives, like carbon capture, that take a fair bit of time to develop. Projects have now been evaluated and we do anticipate being

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have instituted two things within the Treasury Board Secretariat based on the Auditor General's advice. First, for initiatives of a horizontal nature, we have described with greater detail in the estimates. We are also for the first time, as you will see

Public Accounts committee  To pick up on the comment that the minister made, we agree with the Auditor General's recommendation about greater clarity. It is a technical process we have that when a subprogram is a subset of a program, in this instance the border infrastructure fund, we roll up all of the su

Public Accounts committee  I can verify that this is correct, as per my colleagues.

Public Accounts committee  I'm Michelle d'Auray, the secretary of the Treasury Board.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. I think we always want to improve on the estimates—the text, the narrative, and the context. There are some elements that are prescribed, if I can put it that way, by the voting authorities and the legislative requirements. But at the out

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. Supply is a complex undertaking. There are many opportunities for members to learn about it. I would argue that the main communication or engagement process is really through the standing committees. Every standing committee has a number of organizati