Parliament isn't here just to sign a blank cheque to the government and then criticize them after the fact. If Parliament is going to be a meaningful place, it's a place where parliamentarians should get answers from government on what they plan to do with the money, before the approval is granted. That actually means that some of this conversation can benefit the development of those programs and where they go.
I take your point that we don't need to be involved in the minutiae of the delivery details, but if our accountability is to make any sense at all, it can't be the case that it's only retroactive, because we can't take the money back after the fact. Once it's spent, it's spent. Treasury Board can't take the money back after the fact, which is why Treasury Board would never accept the proposition that somehow it could do its accountability function only retroactively.