Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health is obviously in a state of denial. It is pathetic that he would give his parliamentary secretary that type of speech to read. It flies directly in the face of what was reported in an independent audit by an officer of parliament, the auditor general. I will quote specifically from the auditor general's report. Chapter 9, page 22 contains three examples. The auditor general wrote:
We reviewed 13 projects under the population health fund...six of the national projects were not eligible for funding.
In paragraph 9.76 the auditor general wrote:
Our review of the three projects funded under the prostate cancer research initiative found that the branch spent $15 million on projects, much of which was not eligible for funding.
They were not eligible. They were simply eligible because the minister signed off on them without knowing what he was doing. There was no scrutiny on the floor of the House.
To sum up, in chapter 9, page 22, paragraph 9.77, the auditor general wrote that under the enhanced fitness activities, $3.5 million over three years, none of these was eligible for funding under the program.
There I rest my case. Scrutiny of expenses has to go back to the floor of the House of Commons. Otherwise we will have this continual waste of taxpayers' money for programs that do not qualify.