Custodial history:
The majority of the records of the audit process were acquired in 1907 by transfer from the Privy council Office or from the Secretary of State's Office in 1906. Re-assessment in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in the inclusion of some records previously linked to RG 5 (Records of the Civil and Provincial Secretaries, Upper Canada and Canada West), records which were transferred to the custody of Library and Archives Canada in 1906 from the Office of the Secretary of State of Canada. In 1989 a small quantity of material was received from the Archives of Ontario, documents which were found astray with records inherited by the Government of Ontario.
Arrangement note:
The arrangement of the series was thoroughly reviewed in 1984-87 and the original order of the statements, vouchers and related documents was reconstructed insofar as circumstances permitted. Duplicates were retained within the series (and are identified by red file labels), but segregated from the primary series of submissions. Certain records identified as astray in RG 5 (Records of the Civil and Provincial Secretaries, Upper Canada and Canada West), series B34, were reintegrated into the primary series of submissions. In some cases, reintegration was considered impracticable; the location of such records and the nature of their relationships are explained in Finding Aid MSS1944. Correspondence the Inspector General regarding his preliminary examination of accounts remains in (or was reintegrated into) RG 5, series B34. Records of the Receiver General's primary functions, prior to or subsequent to audit, remain in the Department of Finance fonds (R200, formerly RG 19).
Citation/reference note:
For a description of the audit process and of the roles of the Inspector General and of the Executive Council at the end of the Upper Canada period, see the Fifth Report of the Commissioners inquiring into the public departments of the Province of Upper Canada, Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada, 1839-1840. It states, in part, that: "In the Inspector's Department, all the Accounts at present undergo careful examination, and the Inspector General is supposed to be responsible both for the sufficiency of the authority, and the correctness of the calculations, &c. He, in short, audits the Accounts previous to their being submitted to the Council. The Council merely decide upon questionable items, and confirm or over-rule the allowance of the Inspector General. The attention of that Board is only drawn to doubtful or unapproved items. For the correctness of the Account in general, reliance is placed upon the Inspector as the responsible Officer".
Preferred citation note:
Suggestions on proper citation style for the records in this series are provided in Finding Aid MSS1944. In that most of the records do not bear page numbers, users should take special care in citing material when ordering copies, in order to avoid confusion. Recommended citation for copying order purposes is also provided in the finding aid.
Availability of other formats note:
Although the records in the present series have not been microfilmed, the texts of minutes or reports and certain other records compiled by the board of audit were entered in the state minute books of the Executive Council, records which are available on microfilm. The Journals of the Legislative Assembly and of the Legislative Council, which contain copies of reports on public accounts and related documents, are also available in microform. A variety of such reports were also printed as unique publications which may be available on microfiche through the Canadian Institute for Historical Micro-Reproductions.
Exhibitions note:
Exhibition Title: Toronto in Print. Curator: Sandra Alston and Patricia Fleming, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto, Ontario; 1998.08.03 - 1998.10.03 (RG1 E15B vol.5, file 5)
Related material:
Records of the Receiver General and of the Inspector General, related to the auditing of Provincial public accounts, are found among the records of the Department of Finance fonds (R200, formerly RG 19) and also among the records of the Auditor General of Canada fonds (R711, formerly RG 58). Records related to the audit process are also found in RG 5 (Records of the Civil and Provincial Secretaries, Upper Canada and Canada West), series B34, and in the Miscellaneous Correspondence and Subject Files series of the Office of the Governor General of Canada fonds (R178, formerly RG7), although the relationship of the latter records with those found in the present series has yet to be determined.
The texts of minutes or reports and certain other records compiled by the board of audit were entered into the state minute books among the minutes of other aspects of state business (see the State Minute Books of the Executive Council series found elsewhere within this fonds). Some documents relating to the public accounts were found to have been incorporated into the alpha-numeric filing system for submissions to the Executive Council (see the State Submissions to the Executive Council series, elsewhere within this fonds).
Note that statements for expenditures prior to 1791, relating to that part of the Province of Quebec which became Upper Canada, may be found with records of Quebec and Lower Canada in the Submissions to the Executive Council relating to the Audit of Provincial Public Accounts series, in the Executive Council Office of the Province of Lower Canada fonds.
Copies of the board's minutes and of the submissions to it were forwarded to London for further review. The surviving records of the Imperial Audit Office and its processes are described in the Audit Office fonds (MG14-AO), in particular in the two series AO 1, Declared Accounts, and AO 3, Accounts, Various. Only a few of the Audit Office records which relate to British North America have been copied by Library and Archives Canada. The relationships between records of the Executive Council board of audit and those of the Treasury in London are worthy of further investigation (see the records of the Treasury fonds - MG15-T). Again, only a limited quantity of the Treasury records which relate to British North America have been copied by the Archives.
A variety of reports on the public accounts and related schedules of expenditures as well as extracts from the public accounts were printed in the Journals of the Legislative Assembly and the Journals of the Legislative Council. Investigation has shown that the reports on public accounts published in the Journals of the Legislature represent a summary of the information available in the present series. The details found in the vouchers are not reflected in the printed texts.
