Mr. Speaker, before the current HRDC minister was sworn in, departmental officials were in full spin mode over the billion dollar boondoggle. They held secret meetings and they hatched a plan on how to release this damaging information. Then the new minister arrived and it was business as usual. Between August and December under her watch HRDC spent almost $500 million on grants and contributions.
Why did the minister continue to approve expenditures of nearly half a billion dollars when the interim audit clearly stated that there was a potential for internal or external fraud?