Mr. Scrimger, one of the concerns that was raised by the Office of the Auditor General in 2001 and 2006 was that the government was indeed moving more and more towards a granting system as opposed to the accountability of a contribution system. There was a criticism and a concern raised by the Office of the Auditor General at that time. In 2005, total votable grants and contributions totalled $27 billion. Now total grants and contributions, votable grants and contributions authorized by Parliament, are $37 billion per year. The Auditor General expressed the concern that the Government of Canada was moving more and more to the granting-based system as opposed to a contribution-based system. The concern was that grants do not have accountability built into them. Of the $37 billion now in grants and contributions, how much of that is grants and how much of that is contributions? Have we actually moved to limit the use of grants and moved more towards contribution agreements?
On April 16th, 2013. See this statement in context.