Public Accounts committee  As you know, when you look at the three volumes of the public accounts, there's a lot of detail in there, and some of it, I guess.... It has arisen in times past. I think it is worthwhile to look at these disclosures again and to ask whether they are still relevant in today's wor

Public Accounts committee  Yes. I'd like to add one point that maybe hasn't come out clearly so far. There always have been two sets of accounting standards used in Canada, one for the public sector and one for the corporate sector or the private sector. In the past, it was public sector accounting standa

Public Accounts committee  I'm responsible for establishing the policies that our internal auditors follow across the government.

Public Accounts committee  I certainly don't have that detail at my fingertips today. I could undertake to see whether I could do a follow-up on that.

Public Accounts committee  Well....

Public Accounts committee  I'll do my best.

Public Accounts committee  Just by way of an analogy that might help you to understand, in the case of a corporation, if a corporation spends money to acquire a long-term asset, that asset will be capitalized on the balance sheet. It will have no impact on the profit and loss statement. But if that asset w

Public Accounts committee  Was the essence of your question that the increase in debt is different from the amount of the deficit?

Public Accounts committee  In general, I would say that in the main estimates statutory programs are forecast and there are updates throughout the year. We may see one forecast in the main estimates; we may see updates to those forecasts in supplementary estimates, and we may see updates to those forecasts

Public Accounts committee  I would point out that in some cases names of individuals are not reported, but in terms of a description of the broad nature of the payment, it is still supplied. It's really the names that we're talking about that are not provided. In terms of the particular program you're re

Public Accounts committee  I believe there is an aggregate, but we're verifying that.

Public Accounts committee  Somewhat along the same lines that Nancy just mentioned in the context of the AG's connections with international organizations, we too are plugged into a network of preparers. First and foremost, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board sets international stand

Public Accounts committee  I'll make two comments. First of all, as regards the standards that guide us in our preparation of this, they're not our standards. We follow the standards set by the public sector accounting standards board. If there are changes in generally accepted accounting principles for

Public Accounts committee  Well, I can only repeat that for the purposes of the summary of financial statements, obviously we will continue to report in accordance with the standards that we follow, the public sector accounting standards, as established for Canada. All senior governments in Canada follow t

Public Accounts committee  Monsieur Giguère, you have a point of order?