Mr. Speaker, I too would like to thank the member for Cariboo--Chilcotin for bringing forward this very timely and very topical subject for debate in the House of Commons today.
I share his point of view in that I also hope that by the end of today the motion will be deemed votable. The hon. member has brought an issue to us that many Canadians care about very much, especially in light of recent information in regard to public spending, scandals to do with technology partnership loans, scandals to do with sponsorship contracts involving Groupaction, and information regarding the auditor general's comments on the way this government uses foundations to squirrel away money and keep it away from public scrutiny. The very issues of greater accountability, greater transparency and a more understandable method of accounting practices are things many Canadians are very much interested in. It is not too much of a leap to say it is an issue of natural justice that Canadians be able to understand the accounting methods that the government uses in managing billions and billions of dollars on our behalf on a daily basis.
The financial information strategy is simply one step in a comprehensive package that hopefully will lead us toward an era of greater understanding regarding the accounting and the spending practices of the government. As I understand it, the major issue of the financial information strategy has been generated from a comment in the auditor general's report that it has taken far too much time to implement what everyone here agrees is a better methodology for accounting practices.
One of the issues is that this was first introduced 13 years ago in 1989. It surfaced again in 1995 with an introduction date of April 2001. That date has passed. The public accounts committee, on which I sit as a member on behalf of our party, recommended that April 2003 perhaps would be a more realistic goal for the introduction of the whole financial information strategy. The auditor general has commented once again that to date only 60 of 95 government departments are operating under this new and better accounting methodology.
This almost would indicate that the government is dragging its feet in the implementation of the financial information strategy. One would wonder what the reason would be for delaying, stalling and putting roadblocks in the way of the introduction of such a common sense accounting practice. One can only think that there is some benefit for the ruling party to have methods of estimates and accounting after spending takes place that do not jive, that somehow contradict each other and make it easier to secret away facts and details. It is a strategy of--