Ontario. Legislative Assembly. Standing Committee on Public Accounts

• Standing Committee on Public Accounts

• Ontario. Legislative Assembly. Standing Public Accounts Committee

• Ontario. Legislative Assembly. Public Accounts Committee

Standing committees of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario are regularly established within ten days of the beginning of each Session of Parliament, and report to the Legislature on matters referred to them. They do not have the authority to initiate investigations or expand their mandate. This committee was first established during the session of 1869, but operated primarily with the purpose of finding items of expenditure capable of embarrassing the government of the day and rarely conducted careful audits of spending by government agencies. As a result, it met infrequently and issued reports of limited value. Beginning in 1960, however, the Committee became more interested in a review of spending by the public service. By 1964, the committee had been reduced in size from 50 to 9 members and the terms of reference were changed so that all items of expenditure, rather than specific issues, would be referred to it for review. Since that time it has worked with the Provincial Auditor and now holds an annual series of meetings in which departmental witnesses and papers are called for.

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts reviewed expenditures of the government on behalf of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. It held the government of the day to account by conducting audits of government spending.

Standing Committees are established under the authority of Standing Orders of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

Ontario. Clerk of the Legislative Assembly. Standing Committee Procedures: A Guide for Committee Chairmen. Queen's Printer, Toronto, 1985

Archives of Ontario records, series RG 49-190.

Canadiana name authorities, 1996-12- 24

Archivist(s):
Wayne Crockett