Mr. Speaker, the government member left the door open when she said the role played by grants is not well understood. We just have to look at the HRDC scandal. The door is too wide open.
And I am going to open it wider still. We know what HRDC grants are being used for. To benefit Liberal cronies and certain persons who contribute to the Liberal campaign fund. We know the Prime Minister downplayed the HRDC scandal saying it only involved $251, but the more we dig and the deeper we delve, the more we find. There are some very serious cases. The opposition parties have pressured the government into calling in the RCMP. We know these investigations will shed more light on what is going on in this department.
It is a pity that there was no investigation into all the money given out by HRDC under seven different programs. It was found that 87% of project files showed no evidence of supervision, 80 contribution projects had no indication of monitoring for achievement of expected results, 66% of the files reviewed did not contain an analysis or a rationale for recommending or accepting the project, and in 36% of the cases where the dollar value was increased, the reason for it was not documented. The minister tells us that saying no to HRDC programs means that we do not quite understand the role of grants.
Considering how the CHST money is doled out, giving the provinces small transfers of $2.4 billion over four years knowing how hospitals, universities, colleges and CEGEPs are all badly in need of additional funding, one can wonder what is the use of federal programs in areas that, often, are not under federal jurisdiction. We are concerned with the management of these grants, which are given for purely partisan purposes and are not based on any long term strategy.
There is also a $305 million program for the homeless in Canada. That program is tailor made for Ontario and Vancouver, but not for Quebec. We know it will be very difficult for us to access these funds.
I am in the middle of a tour on poverty to explain the federal government's responsibility with regard to the social safety net. What we are told is that, very often, people do not hear about the programs, or very little.
I would like to give the parliamentary secretary food for thought by asking her if she is really serious when she says parliamentarians do not quite understand the role of federal grants.