Mr. Speaker, basically what I want to talk about in Bill C-263 is the openness, accountability and transparency that I think these agencies should have. I want to talk specifically about IDRC. That organization is often confused with CIDA. It is wrong that this should happen.
Throughout many of the discussions I have been involved in we have heard what the people of Canada are saying about CIDA. They are saying that there is inefficiency, that they want accountability there. However, they quite often mix IDRC into that same ball of wax. I think that is rather unfair.
This bill asks for accountability. I think that will do nothing but benefit that organization because the Canadian public wants to know it is getting good value for its dollar.
Under the current system IDRC is not getting audited the same way as other government institutions. It does not follow all of the provisions of the Financial Administration Act. Therefore, Canadians have a hard time really knowing whether they are getting value for money.
In a time of serious spending cuts and serious budgetary constraints, we can make an awfully good case for getting some kind of regular, accountable audit procedure. In terms of this, I know this year IDRC has done a budget. I have certainly talked
to the organization. I would say it is a very well run organization. I know a member across who would agree with me on that.
If there were support for this bill we would have to separate IDRC from CIDA. Going through most of my notes, in many cases the people in IDRC I have talked to would totally agree with this. In private conversation they would say that. We have an agency, a crown corporation, that may or may not do an audit. Only because of good management would it do an audit, becoming accountable.
We also have the public saying this agency is the same, it gives out aid or it is something involved with aid, and what are we going to do about that, maybe we should subject it to the same treatment that we subject an organization like CIDA to.
As I pointed out, that is totally wrong. For that reason I would strongly advise members to read the member's bill, to take a look at what it is trying to accomplish and the fact that it is allowing this organization to get its dollars and cents out on the table and to make them open to the public, thus achieving the accountability and transparency that I believe people are demanding.
Obviously I had a lot of other areas I would have liked to have covered, but for the sake of time I will stop at this point. I ask members to reconsider their support of Bill C-263. When it comes to an area like the IDRC they would welcome that as much as any of us would in this House.