STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS Hansard Verbatim Report No. 1 — December 9, 2020 Published under the authority of The Hon. Randy Weekes Speaker Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan Twenty-Ninth Legislature Hansard on the Internet Hansard and other documents of the Legislative Assembly are available within hours after each sitting. https://www.legassembly.sk.ca/Calendar STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS Mr. Trent Wotherspoon, Chair Regina Rosemont Mr. Fred Bradshaw, Deputy Chair Carrot River Valley Mr. Marv Friesen Saskatoon Riversdale Mr. Todd Goudy Melfort Mr. Delbert Kirsch Batoche Mr. Hugh Nerlien Kelvington-Wadena Ms. Aleana Young Regina University Ms. Colleen Young Lloydminster STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS 1 December 9, 2020 [The committee met at 11:31.] agenda and priority of business for subsequent meetings; and that the membership be comprised of the Chair and Procedural Clerk (Mr. Park): — Well good morning, Deputy Chair; and further, everyone, and welcome, committee members. My name is Rob Park and I’m the Procedural Clerk for the Standing Committee That the steering committee shall meet time to time as on Public Accounts. As today is the first meeting of the Standing directed by the committee or at the call of the Chair; that the Committee on Public Accounts with the new legislature, it is my presence of all members of the steering committee is duty to preside over the election of a Chair. necessary to constitute a meeting; and that substitutions from the membership of the Standing Committee on Public So for the process, I will ask for a nomination. Once nominations Accounts be permitted on the steering committee. have been done, I will ask a member to move a motion in regards to that person. So I will call for nominations for the position of The Chair: — Thanks, Mr. Friesen. Moved by Mr. Friesen. All committee Chair. Mr. Bradshaw. in favour? All opposed? And that’s carried. Mr. Bradshaw: — I’m Fred Bradshaw. I move: At this point I’ll table the following documents: PAC 1-29, Ministry of Finance: Report of public losses, January 1st, 2020 That Trent Wotherspoon be elected to preside as Chair of to March 31st, 2020; PAC 2-29, Provincial Auditor of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. Saskatchewan: First quarter report, 2020-21; PAC 3-29, Ministry of Health: Report of public losses, January 1st, 2020 to March Procedural Clerk (Mr. Park): — All right. Mr. Bradshaw has 31st, 2020; PAC 4-29, the Ministry of Health: Report of public nominated Mr. Wotherspoon for the position of Chair, and he has losses, April 1st, 2020 to June 30th, 2020; PAC 5-29, Ministry of moved that motion. All in favour of the motion? Finance: Report of public losses, April 1st, 2020 to June 30th, 2020. Some Hon. Members: — Agreed. PAC 6-29, Ministry of Advanced Education: Report of public Procedural Clerk (Mr. Park): — All opposed? I declare the losses, April 1st, 2020 to June 30, 2020; PAC 7-29, Ministry of motion carried and I welcome the Chair to take the seat, please. Advanced Education: Report of public losses, July 1st, 2020 to September 30th, 2020; PAC 8-29, Ministry of Finance: Report of The Chair: — Well thank you. Thank you very much to the public losses, July 1st, 2020 to September 30th, 2020; PAC 9-29, committee. I look forward to working with this committee. The Ministry of Health: Report of public losses, July 1, 2020 to composition of members is strong, and obviously this is a very September 30, 2020; PAC 10-29, Ministry of Education: Report important committee to the people of Saskatchewan. So thank of public losses, June 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020; PAC 11-29, you for that. Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan: Second quarter report, 2020 to 2021. I’ll introduce the other members that are with us here today. We have Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Friesen, Mr. Nerlien, Mr. Goudy, Mr. I’d like to advise the committee as well that pursuant to rule Kirsch, and Ms. Young. We have no substitutions at this point. 142(2), the following documents were committed to the committee: Public Accounts volume 2 on October 29, 2020; What we’ll do now, our next item for the morning, is to elect our Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan: Business and Financial Deputy Chair. I want to remind members of the process. I’ll first Plan for the Year Ended March 31, 2022 on November 25, 2020; ask for nominations. Once there are no further nominations, I will Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan: 2020 report volume 2 on then ask a member to move a motion to have a committee December 8, 2020. member preside as Deputy Chair. I’ll now call for nominations for the position of Deputy Chair. And that will move us along actually to a couple of those reports. We’ll now begin the consideration of the Office of the Provincial Mr. Nerlien: — I nominate Fred Bradshaw. My name is Hugh Auditor’s annual report for the year ended March 31st, 2020 as Nerlien. well as the Business and Financial Plan for the Year Ended March 31, 2020. We will begin with the Annual Report on The Chair: — It’s moved by Mr. Nerlien: Operations for the Year Ended March 31, 2020. That Mr. Bradshaw be elected as Deputy Chair of the I want to introduce and welcome our Provincial Auditor, Judy Standing Committee on Public Accounts. Ferguson, to her Assembly, to thank her for her work and her leadership and her time with us here today. I will ask her to All in favour? All opposed? Mr. Bradshaw, are you certain? I introduce the official that’s with her here today and to provide declare that motion carried. any introductory remarks that she cares to the respective reports. I’ll now ask a member to move a motion to establish the steering Annual Report on Operations for the Year Ended committee for the Public Accounts. Mr. Friesen. March 31, 2020 Mr. Friesen: — It’s Marv Friesen. Ms. Ferguson: — Thank you very much, Chair, newly appointed Chair, I guess, and newly appointed Deputy Chair, and members That a steering committee be appointed to establish an here. With me this morning I’ve got Ms. Angèle Borys. Angèle 2 Public Accounts Committee December 9, 2020 is our chief operating officer and our deputy provincial auditor performance. So it’s both sides in there, along with information for support services division in our office. about our office too. What we’ve done is we’ve provided you with seven unqualified audit reports within that report. And for And so before I launch into talking about . I want to talk about us as auditors, we value the assurance audits provide. And so an the annual report first. But I just want to congratulate each of you independent auditor from our office provides you with that in terms of being successful in the recent election and also assurance. And that’s so that you can rely on that information and actually being appointed to this committee. We think it’s exciting you know that the information has integrity. So it’s Virtus Group, because from our office’s perspective, we view this committee as LLP that is the auditor that is assigned to audit our office, and the audit committee of the Legislative Assembly. For those that they are independent of our office. are new members, this is the only scrutiny committee. All the rest are field policy committees, so you have a different role than the So what I’m going to do is just briefly . I’m not going to go other committees. And so your role is really helping hold the through all the report page by page, but just highlight a few areas. government to account, you know, and I think, you know, the And so I’d encourage you, if you have the report, to access it. For practice of this committee has been to handle that in a very the viewing public, our reports are public documents. We’ve got non-partisan and collaborative way, you know, and I think a really good website. It’s www.auditor.sk.ca, and the reports are you’ve got a really excellent track record. Our job is to make sure actually under the publications heading. that we’re providing you information to help you do that job, and provide you with advice, time to time too, as you seek that. So for this year ending, you’ll find that what we’ve done, there’s a reporting that we’ve achieved 9 of our 10 performance targets. So today we’re going to talk about two key accountability You’ll find on page 21 of the report if you’re following along, documents that our office has, and we think both of them are we didn’t achieve our target for the time spent on training really critical documents. We’re going to talk about the annual activities. We had an actual result of 6 per cent instead of our report on operations first because that report frankly tells what target of 7 per cent. For those of you that may not be that familiar we’ve done over the last year, and it provides you with a great with our office, we are a training office. We train CPAs foundation for looking at our business and financial plan. And so [chartered professional accountant]. We train CPAs not only for those are really key documents for all organizations. our office, but it’s a win if they move into the government.