Thank you, thank you, thank you!
During this season of reflection and thanksgiving, the Board and staff of CCAF want to thank each and every one of you who have made the past few months such a productive period for our organization and the communities we serve.
It has been an extraordinary Fall for our sector. The visibility of issues affecting public sector governance, management and audit - the three cornerstones of the accountability process, and the issues that CCAF research focus in on - is likely as high now as it has ever been.
With your help, CCAF was exceedingly active throughout the final months of this, our 25th year, providing our members and stakeholders with valuable research information, thought-provoking events, and collaborative networking opportunities.
Parliamentary Oversight
Summer was still lingering when we participated in the joint annual meeting of the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors (CCOLA) and the Canadian Council of Public Accounts Committees (CCPAC) in late August in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. There, CCAF senior research associate Libby MacRae presented the results to date of our Parliamentary Oversight - Committees and Relationships research project.
Our research into oversight committee accountability and governance relationships has taken us to every province and territory in the country. We have met with committee chairs, with senior committee members, and in some cases even full committees and also with the legislative audit community and senior government managers (the three main communities of interest). In Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, our meetings took place right in the legislative chambers.
In Niagara-on-the-Lake, legislative auditors and elected representatives reviewed our work in detail and provided us with highly valuable input for our upcoming final research report.
One day later, across the country in Victoria, B.C., we again presented our research results - this time to the national Comptrollers' Conference. And again we were rewarded with valuable feedback.
Having tested our findings with these three groups, we then published an interim research brief on our Parliamentary Oversight project - just in time for distribution at our National Conference in October. The interim brief is available online and the transcripts of our presentation to CCOLA / CCPAC are available at http://www.ccpac.ca/proceed/2005_Transcript.pdf  .
We have had the honour over the last few months of receiving input to and validation of our findings from the PAC's in Nunavut, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Manitoba as well as discussing our findings with PAC representatives from the Federal government's House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Additionally the Advisory Committee on Accountability & Audit provided us with their valuable insights.
Public Performance Reporting
We also made significant advances in this area - extending our past work in the area of Reporting Principles, and adding to this the completion of research in relation to the Users & Uses of performance reporting.
Throughout 2005, CCAF Director of Research David Moynagh has participated in a high-level Performance Reporting Task Force of the Public Sector Accounting Board of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the aim of which is developing a Statement of Recommended Practice for performance reporting by government. The starting basis for this work is CCAF's Reporting Principles.
September 28 saw this initiative reach a key stage with a symposium, jointly sponsored by CCAF and CICA, which brought together 70 representatives from government management, audit and performance measurement communities, non-governmental organizations, and academe to discuss a draft Statement of Recommended Practice. The advice and input received from those attending this very successful event have factored heavily in a revised Statement, which has just been sent to PSAB for approval for release for public comment.
Our Users & Uses research, led by senior research associate Rona Shaffran, looks at how and why potential users of public performance reports - legislators, the media and the general public - do or do not use the reports. It also suggests key steps that must be taken to make performance reporting more relevant to the needs of users. As was the case for our Parliamentary Oversight initiative, an interim research brief on the Users & Uses project was distributed at our National Conference.
The ideas in this study have captured the attention and interest of many in and outside of Canada - and, as noted later, the implementation action flowing from it is likely to figure prominently in the research agenda of CCAF over the next 2 to 3 years.
Crown Entities
The latter part of 2005 also saw the launch of the scoping phase of a major, new research initiative led by senior research associate Dan Rubenstein. The resulting study is expected to explore a wide range of issues relating to governance and accountability of Canada's Crown corporations and entities.
The changing face of our Board
On October 16, the day before the start of the National Conference, members at CCAF's Annual General Meeting elected three new Governors to the Board:
- Gilles Bédard, Assistant Auditor General, Québec
- Fred Dunn, Auditor General, Alberta
- Charles-Antoine St-Jean, Comptroller General of Canada.
The Governors of CCAF then elected Michael McLaughlin, Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, to chair the Foundation's Board. Michael took over from Peter Valentine, who remains on the Board as Past Chair. . Fred Dunn, Auditor General of Alberta, was elected as Vice-chair; Gilles Bédard, Assistant Auditor General of Quebec, as Secretary; and, Bryan Disher, Managing Partner of the Ottawa office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, as Treasurer.
Our 25th Anniversary National Conference
 CCAF's 25th Anniversary National Conference - Connecting to Canadians, Strategies for Change…Conditions for Success, took place October 17 and 18 in Ottawa, and was the highlight of the year for CCAF. The conference explored three themes, each led by a prominent CCAF member:
- Sheila Fraser, Auditor General of Canada: Public Accountability;
- Rita Dionne-Marsolais, a member of the Quebec National Assembly and Chair of the Assembly's Committee on Public Administration: Parliamentary Reform;
- Carol Layton, then Deputy Minister of Results Delivery, Results Office - Cabinet Office, Government of Ontario: Citizen Engagement.
Treasury Board of Canada President Reg Alcock told a packed conference hall that the Government of Canada needs to modernize its management practices - and he asked CCAF members to help build momentum for change.
Delegates were treated to other presentations by more than 45 expert panelists, including Deputy Ministers Maryantonett Flumian (Service Canada) and Matthew Mendelsohn (Intergovernmental Affairs, Ontario); Auditors General Renaud Lachance (Quebec), Jim McCarter (Ontario) and Wayne Strelioff (British Columbia); Comptroller General David Fairbotham (British Columbia), John McNaughton, former president and chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and CCAF governor; Senator Hugh Segal and President of the Institute for Researach in Public Policy; Frank Graves, President of Ekos Research Associates; Robert Attmore Chair of the US Governmental Accounting Standards Board, and Ron Salole, Vice President of Standards, Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants; Chairs of Public Accounts Committee John Williams (Canada) and Elwin Hermanson (Saskatchewan).
There was strong representation at the conference from federal, provincial and territorial legislatures and Auditors General's offices, as well as from central agency and internal audit personnel.
The CCAF 25th Anniversary Journal
To mark the occasion of our 25th anniversary of the creation of CCAF in 1980, we published the CCAF 25th Anniversary Journal.
The Journal contains 10 articles on topics of interest to the governance, management and audit communities across Canada. Examples include:
- “Putting accountability under the microscope” by Auditor General Sheila Fraser;
- “Theory and practice of performance measurement in government: Tell me again how to fit four elephants into a Volkswagen” by Murray Lyle, from the Alberta Finance Office of Budget and Management; and
- “Challenge, Change and Progress - CCAF at 25” by CCAF's Director of Research David Moynagh.
- “Strenghthening Comptrollership and Public Sector Management” by Charles-Antoine St-Jean
The Journal is being added to the member area of CCAF's website, and printed copies are available for purchase.
CCAF's Internal Audit Forum
The National Conference was scarcely over when CCAF staff headed to Quebec City for the National Forum for Government Chief Internal Auditors on October 20-21.
This third annual meeting of the heads of internal audit of Canada's two senior levels of government witnessed the creation by the group of the Government Internal Auditors Council of Canada, along with vigorous discussion of issues and developments affecting public sector internal auditors. Representatives from the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), who were at the Forum to make a presentation on IIA initiatives, conveyed their congratulations and stated that they are looking forward to working with the newly formed Council.
Interview with Minister Alcock
 Back in Ottawa, CCAF sat down with Treasury Board President Reg Alcock and asked him to expand on the comments he made to the National Conference. “We need to continue the job of re-engineering our heavy rules-based approach to public sector management,” the Minister said. And again he asked CCAF's members to play a role “by explaining the need for change and supporting the use of tools that enhance accountability and transparency and demonstrate effectiveness.” You can read the full interview on CCAF's website.
Environmental Auditing Symposium
And then another first: CCAF brought together members of Canada's public sector audit community to compare notes on the topic of environmental auditing.
The symposium on Environmental Auditing: Fostering Environmental Protection Through Good Governance and Accountability took place on November 16 and 17 in Toronto. It attracted 23 participants from federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions and the City of Toronto, and was hosted by the Auditor General of Ontario.
The assembled auditors acknowledged that environmental issues are not contained within jurisdictional boundaries, and that cross-jurisdictional collaboration can serve the public interest. The participants at the meeting clearly demonstrated a willingness to share knowledge and information pertaining to their environmental audit activities and to look for opportunities for inter-jurisdictional collaboration. Work in already underway to maintain this momentum. The fact that the participants agreed to meet again in 2006, confirms the success of the event and the merit of its objectives.
Canadian Healthcare Association Roundtable
On December 15 and 16, CCAF participated in the Canadian Healthcare Association's National Roundtable on Health Systems Effectiveness. The Ottawa event was a follow-up to work the CHA and CCAF had completed to develop a set of principles for health system effectiveness. We jointly released the principles last January in the publication Excellence in Canada's Health System: Principles for Governance, Management, Accountability and Shared Responsibility .
The objective of the December meeting was to validate the principles with a large group of health system participants. CCAF Executive Director Michael Eastman introduced the principles at the beginning of the meeting, and synthesized the discussions at the conclusion. Mr. Eastman has also accepted to be on CHA's External Advisory Panel on health System Effectiveness.
International Fellowship Program
While all of this has been going on, CCAF's International Assistance Program for Improved Governance and Accountability (a.k.a. the International Fellowship Program) continues training participants from the national audit institutions of several developing countries - as it has for the past 25 years.
The program benefits greatly from its partners, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Vérificateur général du Québec, Canadian International Development Agency and the National Audit Offices themselves. It has trained 168 Fellows from 48 countries through courses, topical sessions, practicums, audit team placements, and a variety of culturally diverse activities.
In mid-August, before the heat of summer gave way to the whirlwind of autumn activity, we welcomed the 2005-06 class of fellows to Canada. We are pleased to report that they are adapting well to our Canadian climate and have truly made very good impressions with us all.
Institutional Members Briefing Program
Throughout the year, we have been implementing our Institutional Members Briefing Program. Under this outreach initiative, every one of the Foundation's institutional members receives a visit from a CCAF senior staff member at least once a year. This allows us to stay in touch with our members and ensures we are alert to developments in the governance, management and audit communities.
Our thanks to all of you across the country who hosted us on our visits.
Looking ahead to 2006
We are looking forward to starting off the year ahead just as productively as we ended 2005.
First, CCAF will publish the final report of our Users & Uses research - the third phase of our Public Performance Reporting Program, - underway since 1999.
We are now examining some opportunities to take these results to the next level. To this end, we have received a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of New York City which, if matching funding is secured over the coming months, will form the basis for the launch of a major program of applied research focusing on the ideas emerging from our Users research - and connecting this with earlier work on the development of performance reporting principles and practice. This applied research is expected to involve a wide range of pilot projects with federal, provincial and municipal governments and symposia involving users, suppliers, commentators and reviewers of performance reporting. Let us know if you are interested, and we will provide you with more information.
We will also soon issue the final report from our research project into Parliamentary Oversight Committees, part of our Accountability and Audit research program. CCAF Board Member and Comptroller General of Canada Charles-Antoine St-Jean has invited CCAF to present the results of this project to an audience of senior officials from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Office of the Comptroller General. We intend to take him up on that invitation early in the New Year. We would be pleased to make similar presentations to other audiences at the request of our institutional members.
As these projects move to the implementation phase, we will, as noted earlier, be launching a new research initiative looking at the oversight of Crown corporations and entities. This will be a multi-stage program of research, the first component of which will look at the articulation of a “governance accountability framework” for Crown entities and the identification and examination of related good practices.
Two important ongoing initiatives - our Institutional Members Briefing Program and the International Fellowship Program - will continue.
In carrying out the Briefing Program, we will once again make ourselves available to meet with our members across the country.
As for the International Fellowship Program, other provincial Auditors General have expressed interest in hosting fellows. With the support of CCAF's International Committee, chaired by former Canadian diplomat Nick Hare, and with input from the Canadian International Development Agency, we will examine the feasibility of expanding the program.
Seasons greetings
And so, as we look back on a busy 2005 and forward to an exciting year to come, the Board and staff of CCAF-FCVI Inc. wish all of you and your families a very enjoyable holiday season and a Happy New Year.
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