Mr. Speaker, I commend my hon. friend and colleague from St. Albert. He has done a lot of work in the area of cleaning up government and finding out how institutions and administrations can face head on the issue of corruption to bring about the transparent and effective government he speaks of.
I will ask him about the root causes of corruption. We know it is financially driven. It is about money. It is about the redistribution of taxpayers' money for the benefit of government. This cannot be lost in the debate.
Is corruption not really about the perpetuation of power? In awarding these contracts to individuals is the government not gathering favours so the individuals in receipt of the contracts will feel indentured and grateful enough to reciprocate financially and in terms of political favour? Is this not the root cause of the corruption we are seeing perpetuated by the government?