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QUESTION PERIOD — Finance

Departmental Results Report

November 22, 2022


My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, during this fiscal year, we have approved the Main Estimates, Supplementary Estimates (A) and the Budget Implementation Act. We are now studying Supplementary Estimates (B) and the 2022 Fall Economic Statement. But the government has still not released the Departmental Results Reports for last year. That was eight months ago. This was the subject of much discussion at the Finance Committee this morning. My question is: When will the government table the Departmental Results Reports, where are they and what is the problem?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate) [ + ]

Thank you for your question, senator.

The Departmental Results Reports are a useful tool, as you quite pointed out. The last ones were tabled in February, and they informed the scrutiny of the Main Estimates in March. As the senator would know, there is actually no legal deadline for the tabling of the Departmental Results Reports, but — as I believe I reported in response to an earlier question of yours not so many weeks ago — I understand that the government is still tracking to table the next departmental results this fall, and we still have a bit of fall left in us.

Thank you for that answer, Senator Gold, but the spending plans of the government — most of them have been approved, and we’re nearing the end of the approval processes. Therefore, when we do get those documents, it’s going to be after the fact and they’re not going to be much use to us.

But just continuing with the government’s lack of transparency and accountability, the government has provided a number of debt management strategies over the past two years, telling us what they are planning to do with regard to the government’s borrowing program. However, we have not received any actual reports, such as the Debt Management Report. We are still waiting for that from last year. When are we going to get that report? We have all these spending plans to approve, but we’re not receiving the government’s accountability documents that we need in order to complete our studies.

Senator Gold [ + ]

Thank you for the question. I will have to make inquiries with regard to when we might expect those, and I will be happy to report back.

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