Thank you, Mr. Chairman. May I be provided with a copy of that, and also may I ask the Minister what the difference is? I realize that write-offs of outstanding debts is not under consideration here, but these two are related. I would like to know what the difference is between writing off things and forgiving.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, in the forgiveness of a debt, that is confirmation that the government is not going to take any further action, that we have pursued all activity in terms of any recoveries and/or there is a bankruptcy. We are simply not doing any more action. It is written off the books.

In the case of write-offs, in that situation, the action may be an abeyance. We may have forgiven the interest portion but we are continuing to keep that on the records and would continue with any kind of collection activity, should the individual or company have some means to pay us back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Minister, at this time, could you introduce your witness for the record?

Mr. Chairman, with me is Lew Voytilla, secretary to the Financial Management Board. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Welcome, witness. Ms. Lee.

Mr. Chairman, may I be provided with something that says the difference between -- I know the Minister just gave me that information and I appreciate that. I am interested in knowing though, detailed criteria for write-offs and forgiveness. If it is possible, I would like that information as soon as possible because it is something relevant to some of the issues that my constituents are bringing up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I will have Mr. Voytilla respond to this one with more detail. Mr. Chairman, by the way, Mr. Voytilla has told me that on the term public interest, it is not included in the Financial Administration Act or the manual, but simply is one we use our own judgment and common sense on. Thank you. Mr. Voytilla.

Mr. Voytilla.

Ms. Lee.

Thank you. Now I am told that there is no written criteria or rules governing what constitutes public interest. I would like to then get a better explanation about what goes into this common sense, or whatever the Minister or FMB considers when they are faced with files that are subject to possible forgiveness or write-off and they are deemed in the public interest to do so. I would also like to know what percentage of the files that come to the board might fall under the category of public interest to be written off or forgiven. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I do not believe we have any debts in this forgiveness package we have before us that would be in the public interest sector. It makes up a very small percentage. I cannot even recall any recently that we would have had. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I will ask Mr. Voytilla just to give a more detailed explanation of how we manage the term "public interest". Thank you.

Mr. Voytilla.

Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is very helpful and perhaps this is a good time for me to bring up a case that I know of, which I think should be considered by the Minister and whoever is in charge of determining what is in the public interest of forgiving a loan. Mr. Chairman, I have written to the Minister about this and I would just like to highlight this issue so that the Minister could pay more attention to it and hopefully give me a favourable response.

This has to do with a constituent of mine who worked for the government for about 16 years up to 1996. It has been six years since he has retired. While he was working in Inuvik, he was routinely receiving travel advances of $1,000. You travel and you have to file the claims and so on and get accountings done. Six years after he left the public service, he received a bill from the government saying that he owed the government $1,000. He did not know what this was about so he wrote back and he called the finance office to ask what this was about. The government officials just told him that, "We do not have any accounting of you paying it back so you have to pay it now."

He said, "Well, not six years later. All the accounting had been settled and you should give more information about what this is about." The government position was, "We have no records to show that you paid us, so unless you show it."

I believe actually that this thing happened 13 years ago. Although he left the government six years ago, the actual situation when this happened was 13 years ago. I do not think it is reasonable for anyone to expect that somebody would keep Visa receipts or cheque stubs back 13 years. I do not even think that Revenue Canada expects you to keep records for that long. So he is put into a position where, unless he can produce records going back that far, he has to pay $1,000. He told the government to go take a hike, and then he learned -- he happens to be a Justice of the Peace and he gets $175 every six months. This is voluntary work. You spend a lot of hours and he gets $175 as an honorarium -- that the government actually took off the money.

Excuse me, Ms. Lee, we are dealing with Bill 18, Forgiveness of Debts. I am not too sure if the information you are giving is something that is outside the main bill. Unless the Minister would like to reply, I am not too sure if he is aware of it, but I think this falls outside the scope of what we are dealing with here. Also, your time has expired. I would like to ask the Minister if he is privy to answer, but at this time, it is not something we are discussing under Bill 18. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I will get all the detail from the Member and follow up on it right away. Thank you.

Mr. Handley.