Mr. Speaker, I will give my colleague one example. I think the public will be very interested to hear about this, and the government should listen because it can fix it.
The technology partnerships Canada fund, a partnership between the private sector and the government, was set up in 1996. Up until December 2001, $947.7 million in approved loans had been doled out. Guess how much of that money has been repaid to the government? Only 2.58%. Of the money given out, 97.5% has never come back. This is taxpayer money. It is a not a few thousand dollars. Nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money has been given out but has never come back. That is horrendous. There are also other government loan programs that need to have a publicly disclosed audit.
We have spoken about the contracts given to Groupaction.
The other area that desperately needs a public audit is CIDA. Millions of dollars have been sent out in contracts in Canada and no one knows where those dollars have gone. We have a great deal of difficulty ascertaining for what they have been used. A public audit of CIDA is desperately needed to determine where those moneys have gone. The Prime Minister wants to make Africa a cornerstone of the G-8 summit and has asked for more money for CIDA. I would submit that no more money should go into CIDA until a public audit takes place so we can ensure public moneys are being used wisely.
There are many other examples. We on this side of the House have given a very clear case to the Canadian people and to the House that one of the government's primary roles is to manage public finances wisely and responsibly. Time and time again it has shown wilful neglect and abuse in this matter. It is incompetent to deal with public finances. The reason for that is because the government uses taxpayer money to buy votes. It uses taxpayer money to curry favour with the public, to encourage division and dissension within Canada and to essentially buy the votes of people for the next election.
Canadians demand more and want more. The government should listen to the members of the Canadian Alliance. We have the ideas on how to put public moneys on a firm fiscal footing and how to spend it wisely and effectively for the betterment of all Canadians.