Mr. Speaker, while I agree with many of the observations made by the Auditor General and disagree with others, I want to put on the record a concern of mine which has grown over the years with the release of successive auditors general reports. The value for money concept was always loaded in my judgment, but increasingly it is obvious that the Auditor General is making value judgments, policy judgments, and policy prescriptions that are the purview of government and Parliament.
The Auditor General should not be giving us his opinion on whether social programs create dependence. They may or they may not. It is not the Auditor General's role to have an official opinion on this point.
The Auditor General is welcome to point out that the government is not doing a good job of collecting the taxes owed it, thus contributing to the deficit, but it is not his business, for example, if he were to do so, to recommend what kind of tax system we should have.