Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Ferguson, thank you for your presentation. I would also like to thank your colleagues for coming. I must say that I was delighted to hear your opening statement, of which a good part was in French. Bravo! That was great to hear.
Last week, when discussing an issue I know something about, the G8 spending scandal in the President of the Treasury Board's riding, Ned Franks told us that the spending complied with the existing rules because of the way the votes are structured. We also believe that departments should have some flexibility when it comes to the way in which they provide their programs. However, like most Canadians, we think ministers should not be able to distribute money in their ridings for projects undertaken mainly for election purposes. We in the NDP want to prevent ministers from being able to give gifts in their riding.
How can we, parliamentarians or the public, know if taxpayers' money is used for other purposes that are clearly different from those we examined and approved? How can we as parliamentarians restructure these appropriations in order to prevent this type of misuse of funds?