Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, can I...?

Public Accounts committee  Regarding the lapse in the National Research Council, just to break it down a bit, it is a split between capital and grants and contributions dollars. So it's not just one thing; there are two things happening there. From my memory, the National Research Council is not what I wou

Public Accounts committee  There is possibly a connection with the pay system, as benefits are paid under that plan. You do pay that through your payroll deductions, so we can verify if this is in fact a change that results because of the change in the pay system or if it's just a change in the natural cy

Public Accounts committee  That's a very interesting question, Mr. Chair. The funding model for the Canada school has been revisited from time to time over the years. There was a point in time when you paid by the course. There were some other courses that were offered free of charge. The current model fo

Public Accounts committee  It's a little more complicated than dollar for dollar and so I'll start and then turn to Finance. When departments are resourced through their appropriations, which is on a modified cash basis, and that's what Parliament votes on, we have to translate that into accrual dollars.

Public Accounts committee  There are a couple of points on this one. Yes, there is a database of property. It's publicly available, and shows you what we own. It doesn't tell you what it's worth, or what it could be worth. That being said, I should flag that in last year's budget, it was announced there wo

Public Accounts committee  To actually ascertain what your buildings are worth is only important if you decide you're going to sell them. Once a decision is made that an asset is surplus, we will go and get a market assessment. If it's not in great shape, there's an organization we can use to repurpose it.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. That's the total revenue for 12 months. So the two figures can be compared.

Public Accounts committee  Unfortunately, no. I am the president, and I cannot explain that discrepancy. I could take a guess, but I don't want to do that. We could provide you with that information after the meeting.

Public Accounts committee  There are maybe two things. The forecasting ability has improved over the years. The economy does change, and I'll leave it to my colleagues from Finance to explain what has happened on the economic side. If the theory is that there's deliberate pessimism in the forecast—there

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I'll start and turn to my friends from Finance for a little bit of help, Mr. Chair. In volume I, on page 2.8 you will see the government's statement of cash flow for the whole year. That gives you a sense of the ins and outs, and that is required disclosure by accounting s

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I'll start with the accounting policy, Mr. Chair, and then leave it to the Auditor General to address his observation. The way the assets are recorded is with their purchase price, so it's cash and what we actually paid to acquire or build it. Then, once the asset is in se

Public Accounts committee  I'll go ahead, and then I'll let Mr. Rochon give real content. There's a document that is not part of the public accounts, the debt management strategy document, a Department of Finance publication. It is an extremely useful document in terms of understanding the debt management

Public Accounts committee  I'm going to have Diane get on the record here.

Public Accounts committee  The only thing I would highlight for that question, Mr. Chair, is that those writeoffs are not representative of one year. You can write off six or seven years' worth of program data. We will get you the program spend, but do understand that when writeoffs happen, they can be for