PACP Committee Report

Supplementary opinion of Official Opposition

New Democratic Party of Canada

New Democrat MPs, members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, disapproves that the Committee’s final report on Canada’s Economic Action Plan contains partisan elements. While in agreement with the majority of the report, members of the Official Opposition who sit on the Committee would like to make some further comments on two elements of this report.

Chapter 1 of the fall 2011 Report of the Auditor General of Canada sought to determine if federal departments and organizations had monitored progress and federal spending for given programs of the Canada Economic Action Plan and reported on the results.^[1] The New Democratic Party is of the opinion that, considering the topic of the Report and the testimonies gathered during the 33^rd session of the Public Accounts Committee, there is no basis to conclude in the Public Accounts Committee report that the objective of the Economic Action Plan’s programs was met.

Nevertheless, the report states: “The Committee notes that, according to the audit, ^{[federal departments and organizations]} met the objective of providing timely stimulus to the Canadian economy.”^[2] The Office of the Auditor General did not do a study on whether or not the objectives of the Economic Action Plan were met. There is therefore nothing in his report to show that the objectives were met.  On the contrary, the OAG criticizes the fact that data gathered by the departments does permit to determine whether or not the job creation and maintenance objective was met: “Although a key objective of the Community Adjustment Fund was to create and maintain jobs in communities hit hard by the economic downturn, the OAG concluded that the design of the program did not allow for performance measurement and reporting to determine if this key objective was being achieved.”^[3]

The Public Accounts Committee also mentions in the conclusion of its report that: “^[…] because of the Economic Action Plan, Canada was able to avoid the worst effects of the economic downturn ^[…]”^[4]  New Democrats sitting on the Public Accounts Committee believe that there is no justification for this statement to appear in the Committee’s report. Moreover, the quote above was taken from the Budget 2012 on the Economic Action Plan, Annex 2, a document that was not tabled at Committee. The NDP being committed to the principle of non-partisanship and collaboration of House of Commons Standing Committees and to the dissemination of accountable, equitable and transparent information,  it is alarming for NDP MPs who sit on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, to witness the use of partisan government documents in Committee reports. 

^[1] Report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Canada’s Economic Action Plan, Chapter 1, Fall 2011, Report of the Auditor General of Canada, p. 2.

^[2] Ibid., par. 6.

^[3] Ibid.,  p. 6.

^[4] Ibid., par. 26.