Public Accounts committee  That's correct. It's not a layered approach. Each province would deal with it separately.

Public Accounts committee  I think it was the chair who made the comment about how you couldn't tell in a particular line of questioning which party was asking the question. That's something that is often brought up at the annual conference. If you close your eyes, you can't tell which party just asked the

Public Accounts committee  I don't know the rules of your committee as to whom you may call in as a witness. On the accounting rules, certainly across Canada in the public sector it's quite rare for the accounting standard to be baked in legislation, to have it in [Technical difficulty—Editor] legislation

Public Accounts committee  Lesley, go ahead.

Public Accounts committee  Lesley, do you want to take the accountability triangle piece around oversight, management and audit, and those relationships? Then I'll make a few comments on the three Es and the indigenous.... By the way, it's three years ago tomorrow that Mike Ferguson passed away. I need a

Public Accounts committee  Sure, I'll move in here. On slide 17, we mention value for money and the three Es. It is a bit of historical evolution. The original terminology used for what we now see in performance audits was “value-for-money audits”, but it has changed from what it used to be. Those were or

Public Accounts committee  Okay, I'll jump in first, Lesley. Certainly having been in that seat, I will say that it's always encouraging to have the support of the committee. It's important to be able to ask the auditor what they looked at so you can fully understand the context of the findings. It becom

Public Accounts committee  Within Canada, there is an annual conference when the public accounts committees across Canada meet at the same time as the auditors general. The CCOLA/CCPAC conference is actually being held in Ottawa this year, coming up. In that context, it's definitely.... The Canadian [Tec

Public Accounts committee  Lesley, you have more of the comparisons. I will raise the connection with the Commonwealth parliamentary groups. That is one area where Canada is highlighted and showcased.

Public Accounts committee  I'm hoping Lesley jumps in. I'm going to share this as a former auditor general. It's a little bit of a “Don't bite the hand that feeds you”, so there is a bit of a line. I don't know how formal it is or unspoken, but there is a bit of a line to stay out of Parliament's business

Public Accounts committee  Lesley, do you know about that?

Public Accounts committee  May I throw in a couple of words around it? I'm recalling a number of public accounts committee meetings many years ago and in another place—it was in another province in Canada—and far too much time in the meeting was taken up discussing a $1,500 fire extinguisher. Needless to s

Public Accounts committee  There is no question that the follow-up process is intended to correct that. My experience is from the provincial sector, and Lesley's certainly senior practice is more broad. When a report comes back to the committee for follow-up, I have seen far too many times the ministry s

Public Accounts committee  Sure. First of all, the financial statement audit is the opinion on the public accounts. The Auditor General's office spends thousands of hours doing that. It's a large effort. It's the combination of everything under the government's control. It's a huge document. That's the g

Public Accounts committee  Sure, let's do that. An audit is not an audit is not an audit. When you hear that they've done an audit, it's important to look at what type of audit it is. We've listed the types of audits that the Auditor General of Canada would issue, and the types of reports. Primarily, you