Thank you very much.
I will move this amendment. I think you'll find that this amendment does not have a reference to the provinces, so perhaps it will be more palatable to certain members of the committee for whom that's a concern.
It simply asks that the federal government, for money that is specifically for the purpose of buying rapid tests, regularly report on the number of tests purchased and how they were distributed. We know that some of this money, in the way that its purpose is characterized under the legislation, will not simply be distributed to provinces and territories.
There are areas where the federal government has some responsibility, within the context of the Canadian Armed Forces or the provision of health services on reserve. There are areas where the federal government will also be making some of these purchases directly. In those cases, as well as in the cases where it's transferring money to provinces and territories for a specific purpose, I think it's reasonable that the federal government would be reporting to the House of Commons on how that money is spent.
As a colleague of mine on the committee rightly pointed out, normally we would interrogate some of this expenditure through the normal estimates process, and instead we are authorizing it through legislation. We're doing that in a context where the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said that the government has been slow to publish its public accounts in the pandemic context. I think that if we're going to have a sense of whether this money is being spent properly in time to be able to raise questions about it and maybe have a positive impact, then there has to be some kind of reporting.
Again, this is why I think it makes sense for us to try to introduce some of that into the legislation that provides authority for the spending. That's why I've suggested this amendment.