Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague.
We know that these foundations were created by the Chrétien government in the late 1990s. When the government made major cuts to provincial transfers, it ended up with significant surpluses, which it hid in arm's-length foundations.
In 2005, former auditor general of Canada Sheila Fraser published a scathing report, one chapter of which was entitled “Accountability of Foundations”. She found that the federal government had transferred $9 billion to 15 foundations from 1998 to 2002 alone. That is equivalent to $17 billion today. She also found that the government had no control over $7 billion of that $9 billion.
That report was published in 2005. It is now 2024. Has this not been going on for long enough?