Mr. Speaker, it is now my turn to thank the voters in my riding, the people of Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk, who did me the honour of putting their trust in me almost two months ago. I had the opportunity to rise in the House and now I have the time to thank them directly for their confidence. I hope I live up to their expectations.
The people in Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk and across Canada want the money they pay in taxes to be managed responsibly, carefully and efficiently. Unfortunately, to say the least, today's debate shows the ugly side of how this government that has been here for nearly 10 years has managed public funds irresponsibly.
Let us not forget the sad memory of the ArriveCAN scandal. That much-talked-about scandal that we nicknamed "arrive scam", proved to be an absolute ridiculous mismanagement of public funds. It was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up costing $60 million. It was demonstrated that it could have been done for far less money, much more efficiently and with much better results. Who was behind such irresponsible management of public funds? It was GC Strategies. That sad company, run by incompetent people using a completely irresponsible approach, is at the heart of another dreadful scandal. The Auditor General specifically investigated what GC Strategies has done with the Canadian government over the past 10 years, and it just happens to coincide with the Liberal government's first election up until a few months ago. The Auditor General found that this company was awarded 106 contracts directly related to 31 federal government organizations managed by the then Liberal government. As I said, this occurred from 2015 to 2024, for a total of $65 million.
That is a lot of money. I would invite those who are watching at home to think about the income tax return they filed recently, the taxes they paid to the federal government and the GST they pay out of pocket every time they buy something. A total of $65 million of that money was given to GC Strategies for zero results. For all 106 contracts and 31 organizations, the Auditor General examined virtually every aspect of the sound management of public funds and found that there was very little evidence to justify spending this money. There was very little evidence of any work being done for the $65 million that Canadians gave to this company. Very little was done to check the credentials of those who were awarded the contracts. Proper security measures were not taken. Doing work for the federal government of a G7 country requires security measures, and yet, everywhere we look, we see that security protocols were not followed, particularly in some specific organizations. Time sheets, which are used to record the hours worked and calculate the pay of a person who is supposed to be doing a job, were not managed responsibly. I am not the one saying it, the Auditor General is. Furthermore, it is impossible to clearly demonstrate that the calls for tenders for these GC Strategies contracts were conducted according to the rules. In addition, 80% of the fees paid were above the market average for similar work. Obviously, there were also absenteeism issues that were poorly managed. Remember that the government hired 100,000 new public servants over a 10-year period. Despite this, the government was unable to properly track absenteeism.
This is a scathing report from the Auditor General, which proves beyond any reasonable doubt that third-party companies must follow the rules when it comes to the sound management of public funds, and that, in this case, the rules were not followed when it came to the work that was done, qualifications, security clearances, time sheets, the tendering process, generous fees and worker absenteeism. Everything was wrong. Everything was poorly done.
Let us also remember that this government promised to cap new spending at 2%. A few hours after the King's statement and the Speech from the Throne, in the first budget item that the government tabled, we learned that the Liberals were increasing spending on consultants from $19 billion to $26 billion. That is a 36% increase. This is exactly what we are talking about.
Over the past 10 years, 31 agencies were directly targeted. However, government agencies are not just left to their own devices. Somebody somewhere is responsible for them. They are called ministers. We are talking about ministerial responsibility and accountability. Four ministers were directly involved in this mismanagement: the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, the current Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, the current Minister of Indigenous Services and Marco Mendicino, who is currently serving as the Prime Minister's chief of staff. That is no small matter. Four major players in the current government were ministers responsible for the mismanagement of $65 million in 31 Government of Canada agencies while the Liberals were in office.
The government did not take them to task for that. The Prime Minister actually promoted them. These are not small departments they are in charge of: foreign affairs, U.S. trade, indigenous services and the Prime Minister's chief of staff. One would be hard pressed to find something bigger than that. I will get to the Department of Finance later, if I have time. That is another story.
That is why we are asking for the money to be paid back. The Auditor General of Canada was extraordinarily critical in her report. I went over the issues she raised. This is how she put it in her report and in her answers to questions from the media. She said, "We found problems with almost every contract we looked at, which tells me there is no reason to believe it is limited to these two." That is a big deal. Everything she found was highly problematic. She said that, if everything she looked at was all wrong, she had no proof that the same thing was not happening elsewhere. The $65‑million problem we are dealing with right now might be indicative of even bigger problems elsewhere. That is what the Auditor General of Canada said.
Now, that is really incredible. She says that we need to go back to basics, that the policy should simply be properly applied and followed. That is incredible.
A while ago, I heard my colleague from Winnipeg North, who never misses an opportunity to defend the indefensible, say that it was incredible and asked whether members were aware that the Liberals had taken action and had managed to do it without spending any money. That is precisely the problem. All Canadians ask of their government is that it take proper care of taxpayer money and follow the rules. That is not too much to ask. They are just asking that the rules be read and followed. The government receives taxpayer money and has to manage it properly.
For 10 years, however, the government has behaved in a totally irresponsible manner. Now they want us to believe that everything is okay because this is a new government. Yes, it is a new government, but the four ministers responsible are playing key roles in this government. It bears repeating, because there are serious consequences to that. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, the Minister of Indigenous Services and the Prime Minister's current chief of staff are four major players in this government. They call that a new government.
Canadians will not be fooled by this government's mismanagement. Canadians deserve to be reimbursed because the work that was done was botched. The rules were not followed. We are not the ones saying so. This is according to the Auditor General of Canada. If by chance those folks over there have any sense of honour after winning the popular vote, they should reimburse Canadians.