CAAF is thrilled to report that Vancouver City Council has passed a motion to develop a new by-law creating an independent auditor general based on CAAF’s recommendations.

Auditors general (AGs) play a unique role in fostering public sector accountability. They share a common purpose: To provide citizens with independent assurance and objective information about whether governments are appropriately stewarding public money, resources are being spent as intended, and public services are being effectively delivered. This important role of the auditor general can be seen in action federally and provincially in Canada, and increasingly, at the municipal level with the creation of many auditor general offices over the past 20 years.

On October 2, 2019, Vancouver’s City Council took an important step and decided to establish an independent Auditor General for the City of Vancouver based on “best practices, insights and experience observed in other major Canadian cities that have municipal Auditors General.” To put this in action, they created an informal working group and engaged the CAAF to produce a report containing recommendations on how to create the Office.

The final report, Establishing an Independent Auditor General for the City of Vancouver, includes:

• guiding principles for the creation of an independent auditor general;
• building blocks, pathway and key recommendations;
• guidance and recommendations on creating an audit committee of Council; and
• good practices to ensure the audit committee operates effectively.

Working with the informal working group of Council, CAAF developed this report in spring 2020. President and CEO John Reed presented the report to Vancouver Council at its July 22 meeting.

The recording of the July 22 meeting, can be accessed here: https://council.vancouver.ca/20200722/pspc20200722ag.htm.

Thank you to our project advisors

We would like to thank the following individuals who served as project advisors in the development of this report:

• Evangeline Colman-Sadd, Auditor General for the Halifax Regional Municipality
• Michèle Galipeau, Auditor General of the City of Montréal
• Ken Hughes, Auditor General of the City of Ottawa
• Larry Munroe, former Auditor General of the Halifax Regional Municipality
• Beverly Romeo-Beehler, Auditor General of the City of Toronto
• Gordon Ruth, Auditor General for Local Government, British Columbia