Michael Ferguson (April 9, 1958 – February 2, 2019), was a Canadian accountant who served as

Auditor General of Canada The Auditor General of Canada is an officer of the Parliament of Canada to aid accountability and oversight by conducting independent financial audits of federal government operations. These audits provide members of parliament with objective e ...

, from November 28, 2011 until his death. Previous to this post, he served as the deputy minister of finance and secretary to the board of management for the province of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Personal information

Born in Sackville,

on April 9, 1958, he was the son of Winifred Dorothea Norma (Clarke) and Dr. George Gordon Ferguson, an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

physician who immigrated to Canada in 1954. Ferguson graduated from

Fredericton High School Fredericton High School is a high school in the city of Fredericton in New Brunswick, Canada. History When the city of Fredericton was initially laid out in 1758, city planners set aside a plot of land in the downtown region that was intended ...

in 1976 and then graduated from the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Americ ...

in 1980 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. He went on to become a certified Chartered Accountant. From 2005 until 2010, Ferguson held various executive positions with the New Brunswick Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBICA). Ferguson was married to Georgina (Blizzard) and has two sons Malcolm and Geoffrey. Ferguson underwent treatment for cancer in 2012 and was declared cancer free in 2018. the disease returned later in 2018, and Michael passed in Ottawa on February 2, 2019, while still in office.

Government career

In 1985, Ferguson started work as an auditor in New Brunswick's comptroller's office. He became the provincial comptroller from 2000 to 2005. From 2005 to 2010, he was the province's Auditor General. Prior to becoming Auditor General of Canada, he served as Deputy Minister of Finance for the province of New Brunswick.

Auditor general of Canada

Ferguson's first report as auditor general was his 2012 spring report, released April 3, 2012. The report covered six audits of various

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

operations and procurements, each contained within a separate chapter of the report: *Chapter 1 – Border Controls on Commercial Imports *Chapter 2 – Replacing Canada’s Fighter Jets *Chapter 3 – Interest-bearing Debt *Chapter 4 – Non-filers and non-registrants – Canada Revenue Agency *Chapter 5 – Oversight of Civil Aviation – Transport Canada *Chapter 6 – Special Examinations of Crown Corporations – 2011 The report also included an appendix report of the President of the Treasury Boards’ Annual Report to Parliament on the Tabling of Crown Corporations’ Reports 2011. ''Chapter 2'' of the 2012 spring report ignited controversy for the Conservative government by revealing the process to procure 65

F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...

stealth fighters for the

RCAF The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environme ...

was troubled by several irregularities. On April 5, 2012, Ferguson revealed the government likely knew prior to the May 2011

General Election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

that the $16 billion final price tag to purchase and maintain the jets was $10 billion under budget. The report and subsequent revelation prompted the opposition

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Deve ...

to call for Defence Minister

Peter Mackay Peter Gordon MacKay (born September 27, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2015 and has served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2013–2015), Minister of National Defence (2007� ...

's resignation.Postmedia News
"A timeline on Canada's involvement in the F-35 program."
'' Canada.com'', April 5, 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Michael 1958 births 2019 deaths University of New Brunswick alumni Canadian accountants Canadian auditors Canadian people of Irish descent 20th-century Canadian civil servants 21st-century Canadian civil servants Deaths from cancer in Ontario