In fact, Mr. Chairman, the accord of 2000 entered into between the Prime Minister and the premiers of the provinces and the territories included the commitment of the $1 billion to the medical equipment fund. The agreement is quite clear that provinces in receipt of that money must account to their citizens, their residents. They are not accountable directly, and the agreement states this, to us, the federal government, but to the people of the country and particularly to the people who live in their provinces. They all undertook to account. In fact they have all communicated with my predecessor, who wrote to them twice. I am in possession of letters from all provincial and territorial health ministers.
Are they in different stages in terms of using the funds? Yes, they are. For example, from the province of Quebec we heard an announcement yesterday, I believe, that their remaining $100 million of federal dollars, along with additional funds from the province, will be dispensed. They made announcements yesterday about the funding of high tech equipment in various regional health facilities across the province of Quebec. This is happening across the country.
I want to reassure the hon. member that to the best of our knowledge at this point, the money in fact has not been spent. Please do not say that the money is not accounted for. The provinces and the territories have drawn down all their money from the fund that was established by the Department of Finance. Have they all spent it at this point? No. Have they all written the cheques for the equipment they have ordered at this point? No. Certainly we will be watching very carefully to ensure that the money is spent as was originally intended. I am aware of some of the concerns around what some of the money may have been spent for. This is something that I have asked my deputy minister to pursue with the respective provincial deputy ministers.