Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to see you in the chair, and I am pleased to participate in this important debate. I congratulate my colleague from Simcoe-Grey for her very insightful comments with regard to the motion before the House. Similarly, I think the real crux of the issue was referenced by my colleague from Cypress Hills—Grasslands when he said that this had all the earmarking of another boondoggle, another scandal as we have seen with the likes of the gun registration, the long gun registry, that was going to cost $2 million. We know it has escalated and is now approaching $2 billion. We know the situation involving the sponsorship program has criminal investigations ongoing. We know the Gomery commission is continuing to deliberate over massive misspending and misappropriation of public money.
I think Canadians are most struck with that. It is the absolute magnitude of the amount of taxpayer money involved in these programs.
The motion quite clearly calls for the window to be opened, to air out the government's activities, to shine a light in the corner of the government's spending practices. Clearly, this would be of benefit to everyone. Quite frankly it would be consistent with what the Prime Minister speaks of when he says there is a democratic deficit. It is beyond the pale. It is beyond any excuse why the government would resist this type of motion which seeks to accomplish the very words of the Prime Minister in addressing the democratic deficit.
In the absence of doing so, the democratic deficit widens. What Canadians perhaps do not understand about this exercise is it is aimed at allowing the Auditor General to do what she has done before. For had it not been the work of Sheila Fraser and the Auditor General's office and officials, perhaps the sponsorship scandal would have never been broken wide open.
We did our work here in the House of Commons, and there is a partisan element to that. What was most telling was what the Auditor General disclosed about the sponsorship program. She similarly disclosed in previous reports that the government was breaking every rule in the book to cover up and keep secret its activities around the spending of public money.
The motion is meant to empower and enable the Auditor General to continue with the good work that she has done in the past, and also previous auditor generals, in holding the government to account, bringing about greater transparency and responsibility in spending. Any resistance to this effort is really inexcusable on the part of the government.
Ironically, and I say this as an aside, what we saw happening in the wake of the sponsorship scandal was efforts to curtail the Auditor General from her good work by cutting her budget. That was the government's true response. Then there was the political exercise of putting it off to one side by calling for the commission.
It is incredible, at a time when the public inquiry is still ongoing into the very workings and inner workings of government, that the government would be resistant to somehow expand the mandate of the Auditor General to allow her to have the powers of an external auditor in these foundations to ensure that they are up to par and that they are subject to performance audits by her department. There should not be any question. There should be no hesitancy whatsoever that this should be the case.
The member for Simcoe--Grey laid out a very compelling argument as to what benefits would accrue if the Auditor General were permitted to do this good work. She raised concerns about accountability of these foundations going back to 1997.
In that 1997 audit, the auditor general observed that the Canada Foundation for Innovation, as an example, did not have to report on the results of how it spent $800 million. In 1998, the auditor general again criticized the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, saying that the government was transferring money even before the foundation legally existed.
How can this happen? How can this be allowed to occur when it involves such substantive amounts of public funds? What was the government doing? What were its actions? How was it able to ignore the wishes of Parliament on such an important matter?
Going back to 1996 and coming forward to just this past Auditor General's report, the federal government has transferred $9 billion into foundations beyond the realm, the reach and the examination of the Auditor General.
Let me say that figure again: $9 billion, a staggering amount. If amounts in the range of $100 million and $250 million are being absconded with in the sponsorship program, what is to give assurance to Canadians that this money is not involved in a similar type of monkey business and partisan vote buying that we have seen in the past and which is the very subject of the current Gomery commission?
The Auditor General in her 2002 report stated:
It will be years before the ultimate intended recipients--students, health care providers, and others--receive the money.
This is about diverting money away from where it was intended to be into a potential scheme in which there is partisan activity and reward accruing to the Liberal Party of Canada.
The Auditor General revealed in her report last week that $7.7 billion of the original amount that was put into the bank accounts of the foundations is still sitting there. The Auditor General questioned that the transfers were essentially pre-funding foundations for a number of years. The policy has been that they should not pre-fund, or this is what the Auditor General herself is saying, but these would be exceptions.
It has been suggested by some that the transfer of funds into foundations is a convenient way to reduce the surplus, in other words, cooking the books. We saw that in the finance minister's attempts to somehow tell Parliament and the Canadian people that there was only a $1.9 billion surplus, which later was revealed to be a $9.1 billion surplus. As my colleague from Medicine Hat said, it was a severe case of fiscal dyslexia. There have been lots and lots of examples of the government grossly underestimating what those surpluses were going to be and then somehow money is discovered between the cushions of the finance minister's couch.
The Auditor General has consistently asked that Parliament allow her to examine this information that is available only through an audit of the foundations. Her financial statement for the government for the year ending March 31, 2002 revealed that Parliament is not receiving reports on independent, broad-scope audits that examine more than the financial statements of foundations, including compliance with authorities and propriety and value for money.
It is a very clearcut case, a compelling argument and a plea from the Auditor General for the opportunity to look into these foundations and see that the money is being spent properly. What could be simpler than that?
In last year's budget the government stated that the foundations will be subject to independent evaluations, comprehensive performance reporting and compliance of audits for the use of federal funding. Despite that assurance, it did not happen. The Auditor General as recently as last week said she is still concerned about accountability. She is still concerned about how this money is being spent and hidden away.
She stated that the government has no commitment to provide for performance audits reported to Parliament. She went on to say:
Thus, Parliament does not have adequate information and assurance on the use of more than $9 billion in public funds already transferred to the foundations.
What do we know about how these foundations are spending the money? We know very little. We know of a couple of examples.
Canada Health Infoway, the foundation that was set up to develop efficient health data, spent $30 million administering $51 million. It spent $30 million administrating over $51 million. It started with $500 million in 2001. It got another $600 million the following year and another $100 million in the year after that. In fact, the foundation has so much money it has earned interest. The foundation has earned $32 million in interest on that money while it tries to make up its mind.
The 2001 audit said that foundations such as the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology and Canada Health Infoway had a limited number of directors with signing authority over millions of dollars, even before a full board of directors was established and operating. Again it is a cart before the horse mentality.
Foundations are not subject to access to information. Only a small number of the foundations have actually had annual reports tabled in this place. Only three of the foundations are required to table their annual reports, with enabling legislation. Some of these foundations did not have any provision for the return of funds or assets to the government if they were to dissolve. This is being changed only after the Auditor General complained.
Again, it is the cover-up. It is the efforts after the fact to do the right thing, rather than simply doing what is good for Canadians and allowing for full disclosure.
The assurances of the President of the Treasury Board and his recent ramblings and fulminations do very little to give Canadians the assurances they are looking for. The present government more than any other in the history of this country has not a leg to stand on when it says, “Just trust us with your hard-earned dollars”.