Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities

Madam Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to participate in this discussion on the report Measuring Quality of Life: The Use of Societal Outcomes by Parliamentarians. We were pleased to have been able to contribute to the roundtables and discussion that led to this report.

Providing relevant information is a cornerstone of accountability and good governance. Since we audit on behalf of Parliament, providing good-quality information to Parliament is of utmost concern to us. Parliament needs fair and reliable information on a broad range of subjects to fulfil its role of scrutinizing the government and holding it to account.

Departments currently provide considerable information on their programs and services to Parliament through their Estimates documents. In Chapter 19 of the Auditor General’s 2000 Report, we reported on that information and noted that there was some way to go before good-quality information would be routinely presented to Parliament. Nevertheless, there have been improvements, and we expect to see further progress in the 2001 performance reports to be tabled soon.

In our view, the kind of information on the broad societal outcomes discussed in the report Measuring Quality of Life would be a welcomed addition to the more detailed performance reporting that Parliament currently receives. It would help to frame the specific accomplishments of departments and agencies in a broader societal context.

In addition, as the report suggests, such information would help to address the many horizontal issues of concern to parliamentarians and Canadians, such as the Federal Disability Agenda. Getting a fix on these horizontal issues which cross several departmental lines, is a major challenge for government, as we noted in Chapter 20 of last year. And as the report points out, these issues can also be a challenge for committee members to deal with. Your committee, Madam Chairman, last June issued an informative report on this very subject of horizontal issues.

In several of our recent audit reports, we have pointed to the importance of parliamentary review through informed consideration in committee as a means of encouraging better reporting to Parliament and enhanced scrutiny of government. The report you are considering today presents several options for further action, including enhanced review of Estimates in committee. We encourage your committee, Madam Chairman, to consider options that strengthen parliamentary review.

Thank you, Madam Chairman, I look forward to your committee’s discussion of these important issues.