Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for being here today and for having this conversation with us. This is an important discussion.
I want to drill into a couple of numbers that I've been digging through in the last few days and see what you can offer as an explanation for some of them. Although the act wasn't passed until 2019, there is some history in the program for funding. If I go back over the program from 2018-19 all the way through 2021-22, there's a significant amount of money each year, and that number grows every year in what are called “transfers”. It's transfer payments. For example, in 2021-22, out of a total of $113 million in this program, $105 million of that was transfer payments.
Do you know where all those transfers went? I did some digging today, and I can't find where they went. My question is really around this: Is that getting to these programs on the ground, or is it for stuff happening in Ottawa? Is that money actually getting...? We've heard from a number of witnesses who are saying that they're struggling to have access to enough dollars to do the work they want to do. Personally, I would love to see this money getting to those people who are working on the ground, so to speak.