Thank you, Chair.
And thank you for joining us this morning, Minister.
I'd like to divide my time--assuming I have enough--between two of the four issues that our leader raised. One is getting money out the door, and the other is getting rid of the deficit at some point.
On the first issue of money out the door, the Prime Minister said yesterday that if the estimates weren't passed and we went into an election, he wouldn't get the stimulus money out the door. This is totally wrong, unless he chooses not to get the money out the door, because Canadian Press reported today, after speaking to Treasury Board officials, that well over 90% of the stimulus money could flow with or without an election campaign.
On the question of money out the door, I've referred a couple of times to the contrast between our approach and the approach south of the border. I have, for example, in my hand from the U.S. website an allocation of $30 billion to health. Of that, $20 billion has been spent to date. This is updated every week. For agriculture, $2.7 billion has been committed, and $1.7 billion spent. There's a chart showing the commitment and the amount spent from week to week.
I don't understand why Americans deserve such transparency and such good information when Canadians get nothing whatsoever about money actually spent, actually out the door. We get money on commitments, on promises, on other such words, but we do not know in dollars and cents how much money has actually been spent, let alone how many jobs have been created or saved.
Why do Americans deserve this transparent, clear information that Canadians do not seem to be entitled to? Would you, Minister, be able to provide us in coming days with at least some information on the money that has actually been spent, as opposed to commitments or announcements?