Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for being here.
I'll keep my questions brief. I have a question for the Auditor General. I look at all the mechanisms for transfer payments, and I look at the Canada health transfer, which has conditions, and the Canada social transfer, which has some conditions. I'm a little concerned when the health transfer has conditions, but there have been instances of the provinces, for example, using these payments not for health purposes but to buy lawnmowers. In terms of the Canada social transfer, a province used it to give a tax break of $300.
You make a statement here that more recent large transfers reflect a shift away from government-to-government reporting and towards government-to-citizen reporting. As a member of the public accounts committee, I am wondering what concern we should collectively have about the accountability of this money and whether it is really being used for the benefit of citizens.
I will park my question with you, and I'd like to ask Mr. Wright another question regarding the trusts.
There is an operating principle. The transfers appear to be announced, but nobody knows what the mechanism to capture that trust is. So could you give me some comfort as to why this is an operating principle that is not legally binding because it's not part of a trust agreement? The Eco-Fund comes to my mind, the $5 billion that nobody knows for sure has been drawn down or not. I will leave those two questions because six minutes is a short time.