The acting Auditor General pushed very hard that government departments and their agencies and commissions identify what it truly cost the public to deliver their services. And we took this on board, and internalized it because it was going to help us make the tough decisions on how we would emerge three years down the road as an organization. We would know what it cost to process a payroll cheque. We would know what it cost to process a grant to a library, and we would know what it cost to deliver a day’s service through a historic site. (Department manager, April 1996)