Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Historically, environmental remediation costs have been handled as a post-year and supplementary appropriation by this government. Given our new-found post-devolution powers as stewards of the land and environmental cleanup, this current practice of seeing an appropriation for the annual accrual for such liability is a direct violation of current public accounting standards of practice. According to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, these new accounting standards require these remediation costs to be done up front.

Can the Minister of Finance confirm that the Office of the Auditor General of Canada assist the departments responsible for remediating sites under devolution, and did the OAG fully explain to these departments this is now the norm in accounting standards?