THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON AUDIT AND OVERSIGHT
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Wednesday, October 8, 2025
The Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight met with videoconference this day at 1:34 p.m. [ET], in camera, to supervise and report on the Senate’s internal and external audits and related matters.
Senator Marty Klyne (Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Chair: I declare this meeting in order. I am Marty Klyne, a senator from Saskatchewan and chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Audit and Oversight.
Before we begin, I would like to ask all senators and other in‑person participants to consult the cards on the table for guidelines to prevent audio feedback incidents. Please make sure to keep your earpiece away from all microphones at all times, including your neighbour’s microphone. Do not touch the microphone. It will be turned on and off by the console operator. Also, please avoid handling your earpiece while the microphone is on. You can either keep it in your ear or place it on the designated sticker. Thank you all for your cooperation in this regard.
Participating in today’s meeting are Senator Tony Loffreda, deputy chair from Quebec; Senator Colin Deacon, deputy chair from Nova Scotia; Madam Hélène Fortin, external member from Quebec; and Mr. Robert Plamondon, external member from Ontario. For everyone’s awareness, staff from each committee member’s offices may be also be participating in this hybrid meeting.
Before we move on to the official agenda, I would like to let you know that on September 24, the Senate adopted the motion referring work accomplished to AOVS. The referral of work includes word done by AOVS since the start of the Second Session of the Forty-third Parliament and the work done by subsequent intersessional authorities.
We will start this meeting with matters under the external audit agenda. Before we move in camera, I will note that today we will be hearing from Ernst & Young on the 2025 audit results. Ernst & Young will also appear before Audit and Oversight at a public meeting on October 29, 2025, at which time the committee expects to have received the financial statements from CIBA. The committee has reviewed the audit results report from Ernst & Young, which summarizes the audit work. The committee has not yet received the Senate’s financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2025. The Senate’s financial statements are audited each year by an independent external auditor. The committee considers the financial statements to be an important accountability document for the Senate. I look forward to the preliminary discussion with our witnesses today in our committee’s oversight of the external audit.
Today, we welcome, from Ernst & Young, Suzie Gignac, Partner, Assurance Services; and Sonia Leblanc, Partner, Assurance Services. Thank you both for being here today. We also welcome, from the Senate Finance and Procurement Directorate, Isabelle Ricard, Chief Financial Officer; and Nathalie Charpentier, Comptroller and Deputy Chief Financial Officer.
With that, I will suspend for a few moments to allow us to go in camera.
(The committee continued in camera.)