Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to address the opposition day motion. We are taking head-on the issue of whether the government should be engaging in the types of actions that it has engaged in over the last months and years. It has taken taxpayers' money and spent it on all kinds of questionable activities without doing the proper accounting. In fact, we would argue that in many cases there seem to be absolutely no rules at all when it comes to how the government spends money through the Department of Human Resources Development.
I want to start by running through some of the facts and reiterating some of the things my colleague said a minute ago. They bear repeating because they are important. I do not think anyone could argue that this is one of worst cases of neglect and abuse of taxpayers' money in the history of Canada. I do not think people could argue that. We are talking about a billion dollars.
My colleague mentioned a minute ago that two days after the Reform Party filed an access to information request for a copy of an internal audit done in the Department of Human Resources Development the minister called together a very hasty press conference and revealed that there were all kinds of problems in her department and the fact that she had known about this for months and months on end but had done absolutely nothing about it.
Here is what that audit revealed. Of the 459 project files reviewed, 15% did not have an application on file from the sponsor. Of the remaining applications the following elements were missing: 72% had no cash flow forecast; 46% had no estimate of the number of participants; 25% had no description of the activities to be supported, yet cheques were cut and money went out; 25% provided no description of the characteristics of participants; 11% had no budget proposal; and 11% had no description of expected results. Ninety-seven per cent of all files reviewed showed no evidence that anyone had checked to see if the recipient already owed money to HRDC or to the government. Eight out of ten files reviewed did not show evidence of financial monitoring, and 87% of project files showed no evidence of supervision. That is what was happening in this department for months and months on end.
We now know that this went back before the current human resources minister and that the previous minister, now the Minister for International Trade, was also aware of this. My colleague from Calgary—Nose Hill questioned both ministers at various times and they assured the House there were no problems in that department, that everything was above board and that all the applications were being scrutinized.
We can see that simply was not true. The audit proves that. But what does the government do? It does not say it is sorry. The minister does not resign, which is the honourable thing to do when one blows a billion dollars. The minister somehow finds the courage to stand and say it is no big deal. I do not know how she can do that. I do not know how she can say that they have implemented a six point plan and it is no problem now. We are talking about a billion dollars.
I do not know if my colleagues across the way have been out in their ridings over the last month and a half, but if they have, they will have found that people are concerned about the state of health care in Canada today. They are asking how is it that the government can blow all this money on these grants and not really know where it ended up, yet health care goes lacking.
In my riding we were promised emergency aid for the farmers. I should point out in fairness to the people in my riding that they are not simply asking for subsidies, but they do say they were promised this. They are wondering what happened, because they told the bankers that they would be getting this. It has not shown up but a billion dollars has just blown out the door through human resources development. It is absolutely scandalous.
When we analyse this what do we find? First of all I have run through some of the facts. Obviously there are simply no rules when it comes to spending money in human resources development. We are talking about a program where they really do have freestyle grant giving. There are no rules. It is chequebook politics. The department cuts all kinds of cheques. There are no application forms.
Certainly there were a lot of questions about the propriety of what happened in the Prime Minister's riding. The few rules that there are were seemingly broken in order to ensure that money got into the hands of people who were big political supporters of the Prime Minister. It is absolutely scandalous.
We found out that once the cheques were sent out there was no real accounting. The best examples are some of the things that were in the paper today.
McGill University was seeking $60,000 and someone made a little error and gave it $160,000. That can happen, but if there is some kind of financial system in place we get the $100,000 back. But those guys over there did not catch it and $100,000 is just gone. McGill says “We decided that we really needed it so we will just hold on to the $100,000”.
There was the situation where the native band in British Columbia ended up taking money that was supposed to be used for child care study and using it to buy jewels. It is unbelievable. That is what happens when we give a Liberal government a bunch of money and an open chequebook to do with what it will. That is precisely what happens.
What I am concerned about, and I think Canadians are concerned about, is that a culture of neglect runs right through this government.
Interestingly enough it was the human resources minister who was previously the Indian affairs minister. On her watch the auditor general came before parliament to present his report. Over and over and over again were all kinds of examples of how the government was not monitoring money that was going to Indian bands. There was example after example. Did anything change? Have things changed? Obviously not.
There is another example in today's newspapers of what has gone on. It is absolutely shameful.
The question is what do we do in a situation like this? The very first thing is that we exorcise the cancer. We get it out of there. Do we know who that is? It is the minister, the previous minister and probably the minister previous to that one. Three ministers in a row sat there knowing that this was going on and allowed that $1 billion to be spent year after year after year with no proper accounting. Meanwhile high priority things are left wanting.
Consider national defence. We send people around the world to do all kinds of great and honourable things and put their lives on the line without proper equipment. The government is blowing $1 billion a year out the door. It is absolutely unbelievable but the government sits and justifies it.
I heard the minister with her pathetic justifications today. It was unbelievable. She said, “Well you know, some of it goes to things that are really good”. Well, guess what. We know that. We know there are some things out there that if they had some money it would be good. We do not question that.
We question which ones should get the money and where that money should come from. Should it come from big daddy government in Ottawa 2,000 miles away from all these projects, or should it come from local levels of government and private individuals? I would argue it should come from the latter because those are the people who know which programs are most important in their ridings. They know what they can afford because they are the taxpayers.
When we have a government that coercively takes money from people and we have the highest personal income taxes in the western world, and it hurts my friends across the way when we point these facts out and they are painful, rather obviously in a situation like that people would like to have the choice.
I have no doubt that Canadians being as generous as they are, they would overwhelmingly support worthy programs. They would. What they resent is a government that reaches into their pockets, drives taxes through the roof to the point where we have the highest taxes in Canadian history, and then wastes their money.
This is one department. I would love to peel open the books on those other departments because I know we would find the same thing in myriad other departments.
I encourage my friends across the way to climb down off their high horses and admit they are wrong. The minister should resign. Probably the previous two ministers should resign. Maybe then Canadians would start to have some faith that the government actually cares about what it does with people's money. I do not think they believe that now. They have seen too many examples of waste and cover-up and mismanagement from the government.
I will close by saying that very shortly there will be another budget. I hope that the finance minister does not have the gall to ask Canadians for more money to increase spending. Rather obviously, there are billions of dollars of waste in the government, yet my friends across the way do nothing to root it out and to save taxpayers a lot of money.
I encourage the minister to heed the message to clean up the waste and mismanagement before he asks for one more cent in the next budget.