Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PACP)
Date: Thursday, May 6, 2021
Time: 11:00AM – 1:00PM
Location: Webcast through Zoom (televised meeting)
Subject: The 5th Report of the Auditor General of Canada – Follow-up Audit on Rail Safety – Transport Canada
Witnesses:
- Michael Keenan, Deputy Minister
- Aaron McCrorie, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety & Security
- Michael DeJong, Director General, Rail Safety (TBD)
Opening Remarks: Minister to deliver remarks (5 mins)
Question of witnesses:
For the first round of questioning, six (6) minutes (for both question and answer) to a representative of each party in the following order (24 mins):
- Conservative Party
- Liberal Party
- Bloc Québecois
- New Democratic Party
For the second and subsequent rounds, time allocation is as follows (25 mins):
- Conservative (5 mins);
- Liberal (5 mins);
- Bloc Québecois (2.5 mins);
- New Democratic Party (2.5 mins);
- Conservative (5 mins);
- Liberal (5 mins).
About PACP:
When the Speaker tables a report by the Auditor General in the House of Commons, it is automatically referred to the Public Accounts Committee. The Committee selects the chapters of the report it wants to study and calls the Auditor General and senior public servants from the audited organizations to appear before it to respond to the Office of the Auditor General’s findings. The Committee also reviews the federal government’s consolidated financial statements – the Public Accounts of Canada – and examines financial and/or accounting shortcomings raised by the Auditor General. At the conclusion of a study, the Committee may present a report to the House of Commons that includes recommendations to the government for improvements in administrative and financial practices and controls of federal departments and agencies.
Government policy, and the extent to which policy objectives are achieved, are generally not examined by the Public Accounts Committee. Instead, the Committee focuses on government administration – the economy and efficiency of program delivery as well as the adherence to government policies, directives and standards. The Committee seeks to hold the government to account for effective public administration and due regard for public funds.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3) of the House of Commons, the mandate of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts is to review and report on:
- The Public Accounts of Canada;
- All reports of the Auditor General of Canada;
- The Office of the Auditor General’s Departmental Plan and Departmental Results Report; and,
- Any other matter that the House of Commons shall, from time to time, refer to the Committee.
TC-related Committee activity within the last year
In November 2020, the Committee invited TC officials to appear for its study on Report 1 – Follow-up Audit on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods of the 2020 Fall Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
Reason for inviting Transport Canada:
The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Public Accounts is inviting the Deputy Minister of Transport Canada to appear in view of its study of Report 5 – Follow-up Audit on Rail Safety of the Spring 2021 Reports of the Auditor General.