Internal Audit and Evaluation Documents

Parks Canada - Parks Canada Performance, Evaluation and Audit 2006 - 2009 Plan

Report presented to the Audit Committee

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1. Background

The Parks Canada Agency (PCA) is conducting a series of cyclical audits of key financial, administrative and management practices for all field units, service centres and the National Office. Field units are groupings of national parks, national historic sites and national marine conservation areas that are usually in proximity to one another. Their proximity allows them to share management and administrative resources. The service centres support the organization in a variety of professional and technical disciplines.

The audit of the Office of the Director General for Western and Northern Canada (DG Western and Northern Canada) was conducted as part of the program of cyclical audits of key financial processes by Parks Canada's Internal Audit and Evaluation Office. DG Western and Northern Canada provides support for large-scale project planning, promotes communication between the operational and decision-making levels and provides human resources services to field units.

The office of the DG Western and Northern Canada serves 15 field units scattered over the following provinces and territories: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The annual budget operation for DG Western and Northern Canada (Highways Service Center Directorate excluded), is approximately $6 million. DG Western and Northern Canada also includes the Executive Director, Northern Canada and the Executive Director, Mountain Parks. The Executive Director, Mountain Parks, includes the Through Highways Directorate, which is responsible for ensuring the safety and maintenance of the highways serving the different parks and the section of the Trans-Canada Highway for which the Agency is responsible. Current road maintenance expenditures are budgeted out of the field units where the roads are located. By contrast, the large-scale projects are assumed by the group headed by the Director, Highways Service Center.

DG Western and Northern Canada's financial operations are handled by the Winnipeg Service Centre's finance group, with the exception of expenditures by the group headed by the Executive Director, Mountain Parks, which are handled by the Banff Field Unit's finance group.

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