Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, with respect to our current practice of monitoring and evaluation, I can assure the House that our regional offices do report the monthly balance in each community's accumulated surplus and deficit account. This would be the accounts for each municipal fund and that would include things like the municipal operations fund, the water and sewage operations fund, equipment reserve fund, just as examples of the types of funds that would be monitored on a monthly basis. In addition, each quarter, we have the regional staff provide our headquarters with each community's quarterly unaudited financial statements. If we see problems in either the monthly statements or when we do the quarterly unaudited, then exactly as the Member suggests, we do work with those communities as soon as we see a problem to point that out to them and to work with them on a plan if there is any projected deficit in any of those funds. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Iqaluit, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When the balances are

reported and the quarterly reports are received on the unaudited financial statements for a community and there is a serious deficit problem or a problem in cash flow or whatever, then what does the department do? I have seen a copy of the audit, so I am privy to that information. I see where some communities were in a situation where they were $200,000 or $300,000 in the aggregate account, in a deficit situation. Would they not have picked that up three months prior to that. You have four quarters in a year, would it not have been picked up in the first quarter, the second quarter or the third quarter? Why would that community get to that point? Would the department for example, send in municipal administrators to help the community and say look, maybe you have a problem in your water and sewage area that your truck is on the road too often? Maybe you are not charging enough for callouts? That is what I am trying to get at. What kind of logistic support does the department offer to the communities when there is an indication during your early warning system, your early monitoring system, to help those communities?

Thank you. Ms. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Indeed, if the department sees that there is a projected deficit in any fund, then there is an immediate response back to the community to find out why this is occurring and to work with the community on a plan that would hopefully see that account balance. There is sometimes an issue around the information that is provided, and certainly if there is a breakdown in financial controls or in the financial information system in a community, it may be that the information that is provided monthly or quarterly, in fact, does not reflect the true picture and then you do get a surprise at audit time. However that is rare. It does not often happen. We would know in advance if there was an issue around the financial control or system in a municipal government. We saw a bit of a change this year where some of the communities have run into deficits around managing their canteen funds in the recreation centre. If you look at the auditor's comments, they are more around how the petty cash aspects were managed, how the actual cash accounting was managed. We are working very specifically on that issue since that seemed to be a common one, and that is what got a couple of communities into problems. It was not with the big ticket items but was with running the canteen in the rec centres. So the audit can become qualified for something that is relatively minor. A qualified audit is not necessarily an indication of a major financial problem, there is more to it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. We are dealing with community monitoring and evaluation, total operations and maintenance, $924,000. Do we agree? Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to follow up on questions that Mr. Picco was asking. I asked this question to the Minister a few weeks ago in the House regarding the audit conclusions on the various communities and the Minister indicated that they were not major problems, that it was mostly petty cash problems related to the canteen funds. Can the Minister indicate what are the more serious problems or conclusions that have been brought up as a result of the audit? Do we not have situations where some communities are over by $200,000 and $300,000? Is that not correct?

Thank you. Ms. Ballantyne.

Mr. Chairman, the comment I would like to make is that we need to look at the full picture when we are looking at the summary data because while there may be a deficit in one account, there may be a surplus in the other. You really need to look at the full audit. I believe that is information that we could make available to Members who would have a specific concern perhaps about a community in their constituency that they would like to have more information on. It is difficult to give a broad statement. Yes, there are some communities that do have up to a couple $100,000 in deficit, but you have to look at that against what their total operating budget is, and as a percentage of the budget, is that significant or not? I think that kind of analysis needs to be brought into the discussion. It is very hard to generalize overall, across the whole territory. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are talking $200,000 or $300,000. I do not think it matters what the size of the budget. That to me, is still significant. My question at this point would be, even though we have not seen the results, what were the highlights of the audit that were made by the Auditor General in his report? What points were made?

Thank you. I am advised the audit of the municipalities is not before this committee. I think we are getting into the core of the audit aspect of things, but I will allow the deputy minister or the Minister to respond at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is the Auditor General's report. It is not our report. It is his report. That is why we cannot comment on it.

Thank you. We are dealing with community monitoring and evaluation. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when can we expect to see this report?

Thank you. When do we expect this Auditor's report, Madam Minister?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask my deputy minister to give you the detail on that. It is the Auditor General's report. It is not our report, as I said before. It is at his time when he wants to bring it forward.

Thank you. Ms. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that the Auditor General will submit his report directly to the Members and to the standing committee. It will not come through the department. It will not come from the Minister to the House. It will come directly from the Auditor General, therefore, to the Legislative Assembly. The timing is up to the Auditor General and we are not in that loop in terms

of when it is going to be released. That will be coming directly from the Auditor General to the standing committee. That is my understanding. Thank you.

Thank you. It will probably go through the Infrastructure Committee. Community monitoring and evaluation. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. That is a bit detailed. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will provide all the information to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you. Community monitoring and evaluation. Mr. Picco.