Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being with us, today.
Mr. McArthur, in your testimony, you said that Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC, was a very effective organization. That's a free translation. In your recommendations, you ask that funding be reinstated as quickly as possible for projects that have already been funded.
I'm completely overwhelmed by the fact that the Liberals are defending this fund. There's nothing partisan about what we're doing today. We're talking about an organization whose possible malfeasance is manifold, which has violated at least three laws, and whose several dozen irregularities have been documented by the Auditor General, who, last time I checked, is not partisan.
I understand that you find this organization effective, because the industry needs funding and you need that funding.
The Auditor General's report states: “the foundation’s staff rejected some projects because of specific risks, but that it put forward for approval other projects with the same risks.” It also mentions that this selection of projects had gone against the experts' recommendations.
For the public, for the intelligent informed person looking at this situation, what you're asking for is possibly to restore funding for projects that may have been funded at the expense of other projects, which carried the same risks and had not been recommended by the experts.
If you're a taxpayer looking at the committee today, do you find your recommendation reasonable?