Report: Audit Committee - March 13, 2023

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Board Room, Simcoe Hall, 2nd floor

REPORT NUMBER 151 OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE

MARCH 13, 2023

To the Business Board,
University of Toronto

Your Committee reports that it held a meeting in the Boardroom, Simcoe Hall, on Monday, March 13, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. with the following:

Present:
Joanne McNamara (Chair), Teodora Dechev (Vice-Chair), Anna Kennedy (Vice-Chair of Governing Council), David Bowden, Sue Graham-Nutter,  Rajiv Mathur, Paul Huyer, Rima Ramchandani*, Lara Zink

Regrets:

Non-Voting Assessors:
Scott Mabury, Vice President, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships
Sheree Drummond, Secretary of the Governing Council
Trevor Rodgers, Chief Financial Officer
Alex Matos, Director, Internal Audit

Secretariat:
Timothy Harlick, Secretary

In Attendance:
Claire Kennedy, Chair of the Task Force on Risk Reporting
Helen Bao, Executive Financial Officer, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships
Sanish Samuel, Controller & Director of Financial Services
Daniel Ottini, Deputy Director, Internal Audit

*Attended Remotely

Audit Committee met in Closed Session

Pursuant to section 6.1 of the Audit Committee terms of reference, consideration of items 7 to 9 took place in camera.

CLOSED SESSION

  1. Chair’s Welcome

    The Chair welcomed members and guests to the meeting. She noted that in response to a recommendation made by the Taskforce on Risk Reporting, the Vice-Chair of the Governing Council would attend meetings on an ongoing basis.
  2. Reports of the Administrative Assessors

    Professor Scott Mabury, Vice President, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships, reported that the University had been undertaking its annual budgeting and approval process and that feedback had been positive to date. He also provided an update on capital projects under development and highlighted the impact of inflation on construction costs. Professor Mabury concluded his report with an update on the Information Security Dashboard.

    In response to a member’s question, Professor Mabury described the University’s risk and exposure related to international tuition fees.

    Mr. Trevor Rodgers, Chief Financial Officer, reported that given the recent news with Silicon Valley Bank, neither the University nor the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (“UTAM”) held any cash holdings with the bank.
     
  3. Report of the Previous Meeting: Report 150, November 30, 2022

    The report of the previous meeting was approved.
     

  4. Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting

    There was no business arising from the report of the previous meeting.
     

  5. Date of Next Meeting: May 1, 2023, at 4:00 p.m.

    The Chair confirmed that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on May 1, 2023, at 4:00 p.m.
     
  6. Other Business

    There were no items of other business.

    The Committee moved in camera.

IN CAMERA SESSION
 

  1. Report on the Task Force on Risk Reporting October 2022

    Members received the Report of the Governance Task Force on Risk Reporting for information.
     

  2. Internal Auditor: Private meeting

    Members of the administration absented themselves and the Committee met privately with Mr. Alex Matos, Director of Internal Audit.
     
  3. Committee Members Alone

    Committee members discussed topics of interest.

    The Committee returned to Closed Session.

The meeting adjourned at 5:38 p.m.
 

March 13, 2023