Audit and Oversight

Moved the adoption of the report.

He said: Honourable senators, as you know, your Committee on Audit and Oversight began the selection process for external members of the Audit and Oversight Committee late last year, as soon as the committee was formed. We had discussions internally and with others engaged in audit and governance work on the type of candidates we hoped to choose, including meeting with previous members of the Audit Subcommittee of CIBA, Senator Marshall and Senator Moncion, and, of course, we’re fortunate to have Senator Dupuis and Senator Downe on our committee.

You’ll also recall I wrote to all senators to direct any interested individuals to make contact through a portal we established if they wanted to forward names of potential candidates. Your committee developed a candidate profile that would target individuals with experience in finance, audit, management and governance, and with specific competencies: integrity and partiality, strong communication skills and adaptability. We also developed terms and conditions of appointment to help clarify our expectations of the roles, responsibilities and duties for the external members. Colleagues, throughout this process, we worked closely on process with the Law Clerk’s Office, HR, Finance and Procurement, and, of course, our committee clerk, Shaila Anwar, and our expert analysts from the Library of Parliament.

We engaged an independent executive recruitment firm through a competitive process so that our process would be fair, open and transparent. The executive recruitment firm was directed to take our candidate profile and target various professional associations and organizations with similar board-level positions. We directed them to ensure that the search be balanced so that we were presented with an inclusive group of potential candidates that would be representative of the diversity, geography and linguistic profile of Canada.

The search for candidates was designed to be balanced with respect to gender, regional representation and minority groups. This included visible minorities, LGBTQ2+, people with disabilities and those with proficiency in both languages, but not limited to that. Several organizations were considered in this process. This included but was not limited to the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of BC, Aboriginal Professional Association of Canada, Association of Quebec Women in Finance, Association of Women in Finance, Canadian Board Diversity Council, CPA Canada, Fédération des femmes du Québec, Institute of Corporate Directors, The Directors College, and Women’s Executive Network. Again, colleagues, it was not limited to those groups.

As a result of this rigorous search, over 200 profiles were reviewed, from which we narrowed the list to just over 20 senior-level, highly qualified individuals with the desired background and experience that aligned with the committee’s stated qualifications, competencies and attributes.

Colleagues, the terms and conditions were developed to address the unique relationship that these external members will have in the Senate. They are not senators; they are not employees. This is meant to clarify the roles, responsibilities, duties and obligations.

The terms and conditions are appended to the report, but a few key points to highlight are that we chose to propose that the nominees serve during pleasure — that is, at the discretion of the Senate — and that we are recommending that they be appointed for a period of four and five years initially, with all following terms to be five years to ensure that there is some continuity and stability in these two positions. Both proposed candidates are subject to the same ethics and conflict of interest requirements as senators are.

After this extensive outreach and review, we held several interviews with top candidates this spring, and we have selected two exceptional people for the Senate’s consideration.

The first, Robert Plamondon, is an experienced member of internal audit committees and has led operational and governance reviews at various levels of government. Mr. Plamondon was a member of the Audit Committee of the National Capital Commission. He was an instructor for members of federal Departmental Audit Committees offered through the University of Ottawa. He is a member of the Ontario Internal Audit Committee, providing oversight on all provincial spending and government activities, and he is a member of the Finance and Audit Committee of OPTrust, providing oversight over $23 billion in pension assets serving 100,000 unionized Ontario public servants. As the author of Ten Steps to a governance Checkup for the Boards of Crown Corporations and Government Agencies, Mr. Plamondon has an appreciation for the principles of good governance and an understanding of the functioning of our national institutions. He is also recognized as a fellow among Chartered Professional Accountants.

Our second candidate, Hélène Fortin, brings decades of experience in public accounting to the committee, if appointed, including as a board member, auditor and lecturer. As a member of CPA Quebec, Ms. Fortin was a member of the audit and finance committees of Hydro-Québec. She was on the board of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants, she has taught and lectured at the Quebec Order of Chartered Professional Accountants, and also lectured audit strategy and accounting theory and advanced financial accounting at the Université du Québec in Montreal.

Both of these candidates are members of the Institute of Corporate Directors and are fully bilingual.

Colleagues, if these candidates are approved, we will be fortunate to have these eminent Canadians serve the Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight, the Senate and, of course, all Canadians. Senator Downe, Senator Dupuis and I are pleased and proud to be tasked to undertake this effort on behalf of the Senate.

Colleagues, given this rigorous process and the unanimous recommendation from senators on your committee, I ask that this report be adopted now, and, if so, I would like to call the question.