Mr. Speaker, on April 30, my Liberal colleague, the member for Guelph, and I asked the Minister of Finance whether or not the promised Canadian secured credit facility would be open on May 1 as the Conservative government had promised.
It had made the announcement in December 2008. At that point, it said that it would be up and running for business by May 1, 2009. Five months later, on April 30, we asked whether or not it was going to be on schedule for May 1. The minister refused to respond. Instead, he tried to poke fun at the Liberals, et cetera.
On May 9, one week after the deadline that the government had set for itself, the minister welcomed the rollout of the credit facility. Being one week late may not be a major concern, but the government did not even have the moral courage to state on April 30 that the facility would be rolled out, but not until May 9, 2009, one week late.
When the government rolled it out on May 9, the minister announced that the government would purchase up to $12 billion in asset-backed securities backed by loans on vehicles and equipment. This is important to Liberals and to many Canadians because our car dealers need credit to sell their vehicles and consumers need credit to purchase or lease vehicles.
I would simply like to ask the parliamentary secretary how much of the $12 billion that the government said it would purchase in asset-backed securities backed by loans on vehicles and equipment has actually been spent.