Responses to Parliamentary committees and external audits

We support an independent agent of Parliament and are accountable to Parliament. Like several other arms-length federal entities, our financial reporting is audited on an annual basis.

Supplementary information tables

As a federal organization that prepares planning and results reports for Parliament on an annual basis, we maintain these supplementary information tables to support reporting on our responses to Parliamentary committees and external audits.

Parliamentary committees

2022-23

Following referral of a renewed Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct and rationale for the revisions to the House of Common’s Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in November 2022, we contributed to the Committee’s early 2023 study of the Code. The Commissioner provided evidence as well as further contextual information on the application of the Lobbying Act and the need for parliamentary study and amendment of the legislation and regulations.

The Commissioner shared a letter with the Committee in March 2023 to address matters in the Code related to gifts, hospitality and political work.

The Commissioner then reviewed and considered the Committee’s recommendations on the Code in advance of finalizing (response) and implementing the renewed Code in the first half of 2023-24.

External audits

Annual audit of financial statements

As a federal organization that operates at arms arms-length from the federal Government, our financial statements are audited every year by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. These audits review the qualitative aspects of our accounting practices, including the appropriateness of accounting policies, the reasonableness of accounting estimates and the adequacy of financial statement disclosures.

To date, these audits of our financial statements have not required responses.

As an illustrative example, the Office of the Auditor General issued an unmodified opinion on September 18, 2023 about our 2022 23 financial statements and compliance with the legislative authorities. In the Office of the Auditor General’s opinion, our financial statements presented fairly, in all material respects, our financial position on March 31, 2023 and the results of our operations, changes in net debt and the cash flows were in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards. It was also found that our transactions that came to their notice during the audit of the financial statements complied, in all material respects, with the legislated authorities.