Series consists of records created and/or accumulated by the Executive Council while performing its function as a board of audit, in auditing the provincial public accounts.
The series content breaks down broadly into three types of records. Reports of the committee of the Executive Council responsible for reviewing accounts audited by the Inspector General, 1842-1858, are found in vols. 1-3. Each of these volumes contains a contemporary index. In a sense, the content of these volumes is the equivalent of the state and land minute books, but for the audit function of the Executive Council (at least for the years to 1858, 15 June 1858 being the date of the final entry in the books). The Executive Council of the Province of Canada had adopted the system introduced in 1826 in the Province of Lower Canada. That is to say a separate set of public account books was maintained. The committee reports, along with the record of the decisions of the Governor in Council on those reports, were entered in these books. The reports of the committee of the Executive Council responsible for reviewing the accounts audited by the Inspector General were not, for the most part, entered in the main series of state minute books (records found elsewhere within this fonds, in the State Minute Books of the Executive Council series). Indeed, from a reading of the state minute books alone, one would have little inkling of the audit function being performed by the committee of the Executive Council. That is not to say that no record of Council final decisions on any audit-related matters will be found in the main set
of state minutes. Some issues relating to the auditing of accounts were not referred to committee. Disputed issues may have been dealt with by the committee in the first instance but have had their final resolution documented by a minute in the main state minute books. It is clear that the contemporary users of the two sets of records saw them as related parts of a whole, as evidenced by the cross-referencing found in the records. Users will note that the records in vol. 1 begin only on 27 July 1843. The record for the period 1841 to 12 July 1843 is in the preceding public account book which is found in vol. 95 in the Submissions to the Executive Council relating to the Audit of Provincial Public Accounts series of the Records of the Executive Council of the
Province of Lower Canada fonds.
Parallelling the committee report books are the reports of the Inspector General and related records, 1841-1858, found in vols. 12-21. These records have been arranged by date to facilitate their use with the records in vols. 1-3. The Inspector General's reports were submitted by his office to the committee of the Executive Council and formed the basis upon which the committee made its recommendations for a course of action to the Governor in Council. Most files in vols. 12-21 include the Inspector General's reports themselves. Some also include documents supporting the claims, such as statements, and occasionally there is correspondence relating to a
claim. Most files also include the report of the committee of the Executive Council to the Governor in Council, bearing the initials of the Governor and the annotation "approved in Council" as evidence of the presentation of the report before Council. Indeed, in the later volumes, the records appear in a very standard format, with the Inspector General/Deputy Inspector General report tied together to the related committee report. The remainder of the volumes in the series are taken up with miscellaneous warrant books, account books and accounts, 1842-1869. Both the reports of the committee of the Executive Council (vols. 1-3) and the related records submitted by the Inspector General (vols. 12-21) end in June 1858. The explanation is not apparent in the records themselves and merits further investigation, particularly in light of the procedural changes initiated with the passing of the 1855 audit legislation.
