Mr. Speaker, as the spokesperson for the federal New Democrats on Human Resources Development Canada, I am very pleased to speak to this opposition day motion.
New Democrats concur and support the motion because we believe it gets to the issue that we have been debating and it certainly expresses our concern about the gross mismanagement of more than $1 billion annually in grants and contributions by the Department of Human Resources Development, as the motion outlines.
The motion and the issue that we are debating today gets to the core of something that is very important in our democracy and in our system of governance, the issue of ministerial responsibility.
After looking at the information that has come to light over the last several weeks about the internal audit of HRDC, it is clear that this is an issue on the proper management of public funds. This is an issue on the integrity and credibility of the government. Even members of the government have admitted that the practices that have gone on in that department have been astounding and scandalous and, as the minister has said, she herself has called for further information.
What is most disturbing about this issue is that the government itself is also in denial about what is really taking place. Yesterday in question period, and in other debates that have taken place, it has been very interesting to see the government now madly back-pedalling to defend its record and to defend what has happened. It is now switching tactics. It is now saying, as I heard today in the House from government members, that opposition members do not support job creation or job development, and that the government is now the big defender of job development in the country.
The government's second tactic is to attack opposition members on legitimate projects that were approved in various ridings through existing programs, with all the rules in place, with the proper application forms and so on. The government is now in denial and is trying to put up some smoke and mirrors to switch the line of attack.
As New Democrats, we have always supported legitimate and worthy job development programs. Many of us represent ridings in Canada that have high unemployment and high poverty. It was in fact our party that pushed the government to be more forthcoming in its support for job creation and helping the unemployed. Let us be very clear that the issue is not about whether a job development program is good. We are the first to say that job development programs and job creation are very critical in the country.
Canadians are not fooled by the Liberal counteroffensive. They understand that at issue are the findings of the government's own audit which gave very clear evidence about the mismanagement of this fund. The issue is the absolute mismanagement of huge amounts of public funds and the partisan political decision making that is taking place.
Partisan political decision making is the nicest way to say it. To be quite frank, it is also a slush fund. The concern has been that public funds have been used by the Liberal government, breaking its established criteria for the transitional jobs fund and other programs, and basically shovelling the money into its own ridings, which are not in need, when other areas are greatly in need. What is at issue is the management of the fund and how it has been administered in a very political and partisan way.
What disturbs us as New Democrats is the complete lack of accountability, not only in the management of the fund and what has come from it but, now that this has been put on the table and the internal audit has become public, the lack of accountability in the government's response and the lack of accountability from the current minister and the previous minister.
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg Centre.
In our democracy, our parliamentary system, there is a very honourable tradition that when there has been a lack of accountability and mismanagement, at the end of the day it is the minister who must take responsibility. The minister is accountable and the government is responsible for decisions that have been made. That is why opposition parties have been very clear in telling the current minister and the previous minister that we want accountability.
We have a number of questions about this fund. Looking at the internal audit, we see that it was only a sample audit, not a full detailed audit. In reading the report, we read “there was concern with respect to some political presence in the programs at times. While a certain amount of political involvement is expected in a program involving partners from the various levels of government, there was nevertheless some uneasiness amongst some respondents regarding projects which may have been approved for political reasons rather than based on the strength of the business plan”.
The NDP has a huge amount of concern about the very diplomatic language that is being used in an audit that clearly points to the political decision making and political management that took place to the advantage of the government for their Liberal members and its party.
We have questions as to where those funds ended up. Why did they end up in the minister's riding, the Prime Minister's riding and other Liberal member ridings that clearly did not meet the criteria for the fund? Why did affluent ridings receive a disproportionate amount of these funds? They may have had some unemployment but certainly not as high as other parts of Canada, such as Vancouver East, the area that I represent. Look at the downtown eastside which has the lowest income postal code in Canada. There was one transitional jobs fund program approved in 1997, before I was a member of parliament. It is an area of incredibly high unemployment. Why has that area not received anything? Why has money gone into the member's riding? Why has it not gone into the riding of my colleague from Winnipeg Centre, which also has high unemployment?
There are some very serious questions about why a massive amount of public funds have been directed in such a way that they have clearly benefited government members and to the detriment of other needier areas in Canada.
Our critic for EI, the member for Acadie—Bathurst, wrote a letter to the auditor general calling for an immediate special audit of the situation in HRDC. The letter he received back made it clear that the staff of the auditor general, who were conducting an audit into the grants and contributions, believed that there was so much work that needed to be done that the audit would not be completed until the end of July and the report published in October. It is important that the audit be done.
Members of the NDP support the motion because we believe it is very important to get to the bottom of what took place. We know that Canadians support legitimate, transparent and accountable job creation and job development programs.
We in the NDP have always supported those programs. What we do not support is the denial, the lack of accountability, and what is now obviously political management of the fund that is benefiting government members and denying areas most in need. Those are the questions that we want to see fully made transparent.
In conclusion, the motion deals with the issue of accountability and integrity of the government. We think that is very critical. At the end of the day the current minister and the former minister who are both involved in this matter must be responsible and must do the responsible thing in terms of being accountable for what has taken place within the department. We have called for their resignation and will continue to do that. We support the motion.
