Not only was it bad timing, but it seems to be the way that the government works. Every time we turn around it is losses, losses in the Canada pension plan, the gun registry, HRDC, and the advertising approach.
I wonder what the current Minister of Finance would suggest today if he goes back and does his numbers, and takes a look at the actuarial projections of the Canada pension plan, as it is currently losing money, as to whether that 9.9% is still appropriate. If it is not, the government has a responsibility to be open and transparent. That is not its strong suit
A democratic government should be open and transparent and should tell Canadians exactly how things are supposed to be. We know the government was not open and transparent on the gun registry. It did everything it could to hide from Parliament and from the Canadian public. The Auditor General told us that this thing had gone from a $2 million program to a billion dollar boondoggle.
It is unfortunate that taxpayers are hoping and expecting the government to do the right thing, provide efficiency, productivity, and programs that they want, however every time they turn around there is another big loss, a billion dollar boondoggle.
Every rule in the book was broken during the advertising program with Groupaction and $40 million of our money went right down the drain because the government said that the rules did not matter. It was all about saving the country. That was the Prime Minister's way of doing things, but perhaps we could have saved the country in a better way if the Liberals had got up and fought for this country back at the time of the referendum, rather than sitting back and expecting that they would win by default.
These are the types of things that we have. Regarding the billion dollar at HRDC, the government said, “Don't tell anybody what is going on, please, because the news is bad”.
I am getting some heckling from the other side, Mr. Speaker. I understand that this is the last day before we go home for Christmas and I thought everybody would be in such good spirits, so that they would be applauding me from the other side rather than heckling me. This is supposed to be the time of good will, good cheer and good wishes.