I'm not defending Mastercard at all. I'm defending the project and the funding for the project. If this committee is going to scrutinize every R and D investment that the government has made.... I note that when Ms. Rempel Garner was the minister, she gave $300 million to SDTC, which is interesting.
For me, I don't hear the Conservatives wailing and upset when the federal government funds R and D for the oil and gas industry to do carbon capture, utilization and storage. They never make a peep—not a single sound—so the “why this, why now” I can only speculate has to do with their partisan games. Certainly, they're trying to weaponize this in some way, and I'm not exactly sure how it benefits them, but that seems to be the intent. It's baked right into the motion's partisan language, which has been cleansed a little bit, but I still think it's just a waste of resources.
I agree with my colleagues that this gums up the work of government and of making investments to attract Mastercard, in this case, to do their research and development and to innovate here in Canada. On cybersecurity, I note that in 2022, Canadians lost just over $530 million to fraud and cyber-schemes, which, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, is an increase from $338 million in 2021. That's a really significant jump in the amount of cybersecurity fraud that leads to direct losses from Canadians.
According to Jeff Horncastle, acting client and communications outreach officer for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, this represents only the people who reported their losses. There are lots of people who would be embarrassed by having been subjected to one of these scams, such that there's severe under-reporting. He estimates the figures cover only up to 10% of the actual losses.
Here's the kicker for me. I know Mr. Garon cares about seniors. They also estimate that 20% of those people who reported losses were seniors. Just think about that: $530 million in fraud and cyber-schemes. That's more than.... We invested $50 million as a government to attract $510 million of Mastercard investment to protect Canadians against $530 million in fraud. To me, it suggests that perhaps there is a need for more cybersecurity and a focus on cybersecurity to protect our seniors.
I happen to think this investment is a good one. I don't see how it's a good use of our committee resources and time to go on a fishing expedition here. I totally get that the committee's and the opposition's jobs are to hold the government accountable. I get that, and we all have that power and ability, but this is just a random selection. I'm sure the Conservatives will come up with another one. If this one doesn't pass, they'll just have another one tomorrow or later this week; I'm sure they'll have another one. We see this repeatedly. I just think it's a waste of time and resources.
Thanks.