Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, colleagues.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your Canadian Parliament and to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
I cannot say enough how proud I am to have the Wendake indigenous community in my riding. I have had the good fortune and privilege to represent the Wendat for nearly 18 years. I first did so at the National Assembly and now I represent them here.
When people talk about the first nations, often it is with a very condescending tone. They are very sensitive to the concerns of the first nations. They are always full of good intentions, and they love to talk about lofty principles, but the results are not there. If we had to find a prime example of how, over the past 10 years, the Liberals have been all talk and no action, we could unfortunately point to the issue of the first nations. Let us recall what the government said 10 years ago. There is no relationship more important than the one with first nations. Here we are, 10 years later, in a situation where we have nearly doubled the budget without achieving meaningful results for first nations.
According to the Auditor General's report, Indigenous Services Canada's spending increased by 84%, rising from $13 billion in 2019–20 to $24 billion in 2023–24. Despite these funding increases, the Office of the Auditor General found that overall results still left much to be desired.
I just want to point out that we're talking about $24 billion here. That's a lot of money. Sometimes it seems like they have lost their sense of scale. We all remember the famous $16 glass of orange juice. Here, we're talking about $24 billion, and the results aren't there.
Deputy Minister, how do you explain that?