Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. However, the person who accused the public servants was the minister of HRDC, not the member for Madawaska—Restigouche. The minister was trying to pass the blame to everyone else.
Yes, in certain areas these programs have worked. But that is not the question. The question is the billion dollars of mismanagement. It could be more. We are talking about 30,000 projects at HRDC. It could be much more.
Last week a former cabinet minister told me to be careful of what I said. I could jeopardize the programs. I will tell the House something. It is important to know where every bloody cent goes that taxpayers pay. That is not going to buy my silence. We are going to get to the bottom of it. We need an external audit.
If we are going to protect taxpayer money, if we are going to maximize what we do with these funds, we need to bring transparency back to this parliament and ask for an external audit.