Minister, I will give you one minute to wrap up, but first, give me a second.
I've been listening to all the questions that have been asked, and generally the confusion comes because we do not have a clear idea of the application process, the approval of the commitment, and then the spending and the outcomes. Do you have a flow chart that clarifies how this happens?
I think a very relevant question has been asked. That is, since March 2009 this stimulus funding has been in place. Have there been invoices submitted? If so, how much are they for? Could that be given to us by the officials? It appears that the Parliamentary Budget Officer still doesn't have that information.
If you have claims, or if you don't have claims, just tell us that the claims have not arrived or that the claims have arrived and here is what we have paid, because you must have cut cheques. If that could be done, I think it would clarify, and we won't have to go through this round again. We would really like to bring this study to an end.
We appreciate your being here. We appreciate that you have your right to say what the government wants to do, but we would like the public servants to be honest and open and say what they have done: this is the reality, here are the numbers, and here is how you can verify.
With that, I would request Minister Merrifield to make any closing remarks he may wish to make.