Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a question of the parliamentary secretary responsible for health. I appreciated the information he gave me about Infoway. On the Infoway web site, the chair of the board of directors says in his message:
What could be more exciting and rewarding than the opportunity to lay the information and communications foundation for the health care system of tomorrow? Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) is a unique organization dedicated to advancing the development of Canada's health infostructure—
This is what it says on the chair's web site. My questions are therefore in this regard.
I find it a little hard to understand and I am going to ask the parliamentary secretary to explain some things to me. According to what the chair of Health Infoway says, it is exciting and interesting, and the foundation is dedicated to advancing the process. So how is it that the foundation was established in 2001 with $1.2 billion in funding from the federal government, according to the Auditor General, and now there is $1.2 billion and another $200,000?
I think that everybody in this House will agree that there are health needs but there does not seem to be money to meet them. Four years ago, the Canada Health Infoway was given $1.2 billion. Now the foundation has made money with the investments given to it.
This is my first question. Does he think that this is normal?
Second, they earned interest, so they gave out grants. They gave $51 million in grants out of the $1.2 billion. But to provide the $51 million in grants, the administration costs were $30 million. Maybe that is normal. Let us compare.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation gave out grants worth $1.2 billion, and the administration costs were $39 million. The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation awarded $1.1 billion in grants, and the administration costs were $47 million. We are talking about $1.2 billion and $1.1 billion, but here we have $51 million in grants. One might say that there is quite a discrepancy and it cost $30 million in administration costs.
My second question: does he think that these administration costs are normal?
I had a third question in regard to interest. His department manages two foundations, namely the Canada Health Infoway and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Since 2001, the Canada Health Infoway has been given $1.2 billion. It has received $83 million in interest. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation has received $350 million—a lot less—and has managed to make an additional $3 million in interest.
My third question: since there seem to be some problems with the administration costs, the return on the interest earned and the grants awarded—because it is not normal for a foundation to have $200,000 more now than it did in 2001—first, how does the Secretary of State explain these realities about the Canada Health Infoway? Second, does he support the idea of having the Auditor General take a look at what is going on?