Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair — Capital Project Oversight

The chair’s questions

Are cost reports consistent with the ledger? Do forecasts include committed but unbilled work? Are schedule changes reflected in financing and asset assumptions? Has management distinguished project contingency from available liquidity? These questions should guide evidence gathering rather than become a checklist accepted without challenge.

Responsibilities in the reporting cycle

Lead review of significant financial judgements and the completeness of disclosures. Coordinate committee consideration of project-related controls, audit scope and material findings. Establish a process for escalating cost or schedule developments that could affect financial reporting between formal meetings.

Require a shared reconciliation between project controls and finance that distinguishes approved variations, claims, unapproved requests and estimates of future work. The committee should understand whether forecast completion costs include commissioning, ramp-up and necessary supporting infrastructure. When management changes the expected schedule, ask how that affects financing, contractor obligations and the basis of significant accounting judgements. The chair should ensure that technical advisers’ conclusions are interpreted in the financial context rather than attached to papers without explaining their implications.

Working relationship with management and auditors

The chair should invite early disclosure of uncertainty while demanding disciplined support for conclusions. External specialists may inform the committee, but their involvement does not replace board judgement. Candidates should demonstrate how they have secured meaningful remediation when project and finance teams maintained conflicting views of cost or progress.

Candidate requirements

Candidates need financial reporting expertise, audit oversight leadership and Canadian issuer-governance familiarity. Experience with mining development or comparable major capital projects is important. They should have challenged project estimates, construction commitments or financing assumptions in a public-reporting context.