Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Auditor General commented on the $3 billion so-called slush fund. She said that $3 billion is a fair bit of money and the government must have ideas, even broad strokes, of how that money will flow between April and June. She went on to say that the government could at least say where the money is going, whether it is to infrastructure or festivals.
This seems to be a matter of government integrity, honesty, openness and transparency. The government clearly cannot spend $3 billion between April and June without already having most of the pre-work done in terms of identifying the particular projects, the regional distribution, the contracts, et cetera.
It would appear that all the information Canadians would require to ensure that the government is being held accountable is available, and yet the government continues to skirt around the issue about whether or not it is even open to providing this disclosure on how it is going to spend this $3 billion over the next three months.
Does the member think the government has some specific reason that it will not disclose to Canadians and to this House how it is going to spend the $3 billion starting next week?