Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the speech by the member of the Reform Party and I would have a few questions for him.
He said, I want to thank him for it, that he will support the motion brought forward by the Bloc Quebecois to have an independent, non-partisan public inquiry. The Liberals have great difficulty telling what is non-partisan. Perhaps I misheard, but I would like to know if this is the member's personal position or that of his party, if this will be a free vote or a party vote.
Unfortunately for him, I would like to respond briefly to the Liberal member, who is accusing us of all evils. I think that, if he could eliminate us, he would do it in a flash.
He accuses us of having an alliance with the Reform Party on the issue of good management of public funds. We are not against having programs. But regardless of the amount, be it $100,000, $1 million, $10 million or $1 billion, I think all Canadians, whether Reformers, BQ, NDP or what not, want that money to be well spent and well managed. That is all we want. Priorities will be identified later.
We are accused of ignoring the auditor general's recommendations. For the benefit of the Liberal members who will follow this debate, I would simply like to point out that the auditor general wrote, and I quote:
Over the past two decades, my office has carried out several audits of the management of grant and contribution programs by federal departments and agencies. These audits identified persistent shortcomings.
He further wrote, and I quote:
I can't help but express a certain degree of frustration with the management of grant and contribution programs.
This shows the role of the auditor general in denouncing the shameless squandering of grants by the Liberal Party. I would also like the Reform member to comment on that and to tell us what his party's position is on the matter.