Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This past weekend I got to sit on a television panel with a former and present minister of the same department. When the cameras were turned off, the former minister turned to the present one and said, “Beware the power of the bureaucracy. They will tell you certain things and not others; they will do certain things.” This is casting no aspersions on present company, but Canadians might be forgiven for lamenting our progress on this one issue, the ability to account for moneys spent. Business can be forgiven frustrations for not having clarity of purpose, when we can't account for what it is we wish to do and who is actually running the show.
Just to clarify, Madame Gélinas, I'm trying first to understand, under previous regimes how much money was announced, versus actually spent, for climate change initiatives. Can you remind the committee?