Mr. Speaker, I took notice of what by my colleague from Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière said about the summer career placements program. It is true that hon. members stopped being consulted during the election campaign. That is part of what we could bring up if we are ever allowed to have some light shed on this issue.
We could check if discretionary choices were purely partisan choices. There were two ways to go about this. On the one hand, there were the summer careers placements program and other programs. On the other, contributions were coming in.
Last year, we had a good indication of the way things were going. Members probably remember the Corbeil case. Supposedly, that meant nothing. HRDC was as pure as the driven snow. Corbeil was found guilty, but that did not trigger any alarms and nothing changed in the government's ways. It took an internal audit which the minister was made aware of on November 17 and which she made public in January for the government to start dealing with the issue.
There is a fundamental problem with this government, and that is the Prime Minister's style of politics. Throughout his political career, the Prime Minister has been known to resort to partisanship, to show contempt and to disregard democratic principles and the will of the people.
I will speak to the Prime Minister in terms that he will understand. If he sees the Government of Canada as his business and his business alone, I remind him that the shareholders of his government are the citizens of Canada. They are the ones who want us to shed light on this situation. Not only will parliamentarians not stop, but people all over the country will ask for clarifications on this issue. At a time when people are paying so much in taxes, we simply will not let the government waste that money. It cannot afford to do so. This is a period when the federal government has money.
In the past, it had developed a habit of wasting money and creating deficits. Now that fiscal balance has been achieved, the government is back at it again. However, the internal audit that was conducted revealed a deep and serious problem. We absolutely must shed light on the whole situation at the Department of Human Resources Development and also see what is going on in the other departments.
Last week, a deputy minister from Treasury Board wrote a memo to all the departments that give grants and subsidies. He said “Are you sure that what is going on in Human Resources Development Canada is not also going on in your department?” You can be sure that we will get to the bottom of this and see to it that the Prime Minister takes full responsibility.