Thank you.
Speaking to what Mr. Simms has just added, perhaps the best way to look at doing that would be to amend the second motion, to call officials.
But I would like to clarify a couple of things that were said. There is not $12 million that is unallocated or unspent; all of the money from the program is allocated. Perhaps if officials came before the committee, they could adequately explain that, if there are concerns in that regard.
I want to address a number of the things that Mr. Angus said as well, dealing with, I suppose, what he described as an ideological opposition.
I would say a couple of things. If we were ideologically opposed to it, then so are other governments that never provided any money previously. It's unfair to single this government out and say, because money isn't provided this year, that they were ideologically opposed to it. But other governments never saw fit to provide that money either. I guess you could take that to the same conclusion, which I think would be entirely unfair.
Not all parties are unanimous on everything. I can tell you that I have, I think, at least four official parades in my riding, Mr. Chair. They're all huge events. Canada Day probably draws anywhere between 12,000 and 15,000, which in a community of my size is an awful lot of the general public; plus there are many people watching at home on community television. None of them receives a dime in federal money—not a dime.
To what Mr. Simms has indicated, that some of the ridings in Newfoundland and Labrador never received this money, I can tell you that my riding didn't qualify for any of this, because we didn't have any festivals that were deemed big enough to justify any of the money, and none of my parades got anything. So either I'm entirely ineffective, which I don't believe I am, or that's just the way the program worked, which we can discuss.
Certainly, if you want to bring officials forward to discuss the program and to talk about the manner in which the program was dealt with this year, I would support that. I have no problem with that at all, because I think that an exchange of information on this.... Madam Lavallée would like to ask them about these specific programs and put questions about them. She could do that at that venue.
I think that's entirely more constructive than what we have before us right now. Some of the comments that have been made today are, I think, entirely inaccurate, and I would love to give officials an opportunity to speak to them.