Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, the purpose of our audit was not to assess the efficiency of the new structure of the organization. All I can say about that is that in the report, we emphasize that the organization should develop an evaluation framework in order to be able to answer that question specifically.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to present the results of our special examination of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. As you mentioned, joining me at the table is Patrick Polan, the director responsible for the audit. A special examination of a crown corporation is a type of performance audit.

Fisheries committee  If I understand your question correctly, in coming to the conclusion we weigh all of the evidence we have and also the context in which the organization is operating to determine whether the opinion should be positive, or have some qualifications, or be negative. We took all of that under advisement in coming to the conclusion.

Fisheries committee  So....

Fisheries committee  We would take into consideration certain extraneous factors. We make reference to those. For example, the Canadian dollar is something we would consider, issues like that. We would consider sanctions that had been placed, in terms of the whitefish. But we would also be very clear that even if it's tough and the environment is tough, we still expect there to be compliance with best practice.

Fisheries committee  Essentially, under the current legislation an audit must be once every 10 years. That's legislated. It can be done earlier at our discretion, if we wish, or at the discretion of the secretary of the Treasury Board, or the minister.

Fisheries committee  Or the minister.

Fisheries committee  As part of our audit we would not look into the future implication of that. That would be the responsibility of management in terms of executing their responsibilities, and also the government at large to consider the broader macroeconomic impacts.

Fisheries committee  If Manitoba withdraws, there would be the one territory remaining. The question of whether that is viable is something we can't answer.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure I would share that characterization. There is an important line to be drawn between oversight and management. There is always a challenge for boards to ensure that they're not running the business, yet they're challenging the decisions of management. That's a unique role and position to occupy, and you need the right kind of competencies and strengths to be able to do that, with the assurance that you can, while not taking over.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  If I may correct that, there were weaknesses we identified, but the severity of the report was not the same as it was in 2010 and 2017.

Fisheries committee  I can't recall whether there were huge changes between 2005 and 2010. There certainly was a significant turnover just before we started the audit in 2017 and throughout that period.

Fisheries committee  No.