COVID-19
“Bring in the Auditors” Shadow Finance Minister says billions are unaccounted fo
From Conservative Party of Canada
Trudeau’s accountability equation:
Double the spending + half the audits = a quarter of the accountability.
Bring in the Auditors
Bring in the Auditors
Posted by Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance, Pierre Poilievre, and Conservative Shadow Minister for the Treasury Board, Tim Uppal, held a press conference to call on the Trudeau Liberals to provide the Auditor General’s Office with the necessary funding to audit the government’s unprecedented spending.
As Canada’s top spending watchdog, the Auditor General is a cornerstone of our parliamentary democracy. Shamefully, the Liberal government has flagrantly disregarded this fact over the past five years. Ten years ago, the Auditor General’s Office was conducting 27 performance audits a year. At its current funding levels, the Auditor General can only complete 14 performance audits a year.
In order to underscore the necessity of funding the Auditor General, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre will move the following motion at the Standing Committee of Finance:
That the Standing Committee on Finance call on the Auditor General of Canada to audit all federal programs associated with Canada’s COVID-19 response and to complete all previously-scheduled audits and all audits requested by the House; and call on the government to provide the Office of the Auditor General all the funding it needs to carry out these audits and any other work it deems appropriate.
“Over the last ten years the size of government has doubled, and the number of audits has gone down by half. Massive Liberal spending programs lack basic accountability and transparency, such as their $180 billion infrastructure program. The government has spent billions on projects to date, yet they cannot produce a full list of projects that have received money. In fact, there are roughly 20,000 projects that are not accounted for. This complete disregard of taxpayer money is troubling. It’s time to bring in the auditors,” said MP Pierre Poilievre.
“The Liberals have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending during the pandemic but are refusing to provide an economic update or to be transparent with Canadians,” said MP Tim Uppal. “In a crisis, oversight is more important than ever. But the Auditor General doesn’t have enough funding to conduct audits of government programs. Taxpayers deserve to know how the government is spending their money.”
Staying active during COVID
During this unprecedented time, exercise becomes even more important to help with anxiety and stress. Let’s use exercise and physical activity to help manage any overwhelming negative emotions. We can continue to be active, despite of the pandemic with a few easy changes in our lives. Here’s Jonah, a family nurse and health basics coach from the Red Deer Primary Care Network.
Red Deer Primary Care Network (RDPCN) is a partnership between Family Doctors and Alberta Health Services. Health professionals such as psychologists, social workers, nurses and pharmacists work in clinics alongside family doctors.
In addition, programs and groups are offered at the RDPCN central location. This improves access to care, health promotion, chronic disease management and coordination of care. RDPCN is proud of the patient care offered, the effective programs it has designed and the work it does with partners in health care and the community.
Read more stories from the Red Deer Primary Care Network.
Last week Prime Minister Trudeau announced WE Charity was going to be hired to pay post-secondary students between $1,000 and $5,000 for volunteer work. The outsourcing of a contract of nearly a billion dollars to deliver a government program is setting off alarm bells with the Conservative Opposition. Pierre Poilievre has responded by writing the following letter to Canada’s Auditor General.
Dear Auditor General,
WE may have a problem.
Ms. Karen Hogan
Auditor General of Canada
240 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0G6
June 28, 2020
Dear Auditor General Hogan,
On Thursday, June 25th, the Liberal government announced they will be outsourcing the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG), a $900 million-dollar program, to the internationally mandated WE Charity. The CSSG will pay post-secondary students and recent graduates between $1,000 and $5,000 dollars for volunteer work. Outsourcing a $900 million-dollar program designed to pay students and recent graduates for volunteer work to a third party raises justifiable concerns and a number of questions. In addition, the connections between WE Charity and the Prime Minister are well documented.
In a display of cross-partisan collaboration, the House of Commons mandated your office to conduct an audit of the government’s COVID-19 spending. Your office included the COVID-19 spending audit in its top three prioritized audits to be completed. On June 9th, the Standing Committee on Finance passed a unanimous motion (10 YEAS to 0 NAYS) calling on your office to audit all programs associated with COVID-19, and for the government to provide your office with sufficient funding to do so. During your appearance at Finance Committee on Monday, June 22nd, you stated:
“We viewed the committee’s motion as reinforcing the importance of our work and its value to parliament. We pride ourselves in supporting Parliament to the best of our abilities. Given our current resourcing and funding levels, we need to be selective when deciding on the audits that we conduct; we will not be able to audit each, and every federal program associated with Canada’s COVID-19 response.”
Auditor General, we are writing to ask your office and team of auditors to include the $900 million-dollar CSSG program and the government’s outsourcing of it to WE Charity in your final report to Parliament on the government’s pandemic spending. By outsourcing this program to a third party, the proper channels for Opposition scrutiny, the very bedrock of our parliamentary democracy, have been circumvented. Indeed, it is your office that will provide the most legitimate and transparent examination of this program.
The Trudeau government has brought forward unprecedented levels of spending and administration of programs due to COVID-19, but this does not mean that accountability, transparency and value for money should be ignored. Simply put, they can never be ignored.
Auditor General, we look forward to your response to our request to include the government’s $900 million-dollar Canada Student Service Grant, and the administration of this program to the internationally run WE Charity, in your final report to Parliament on the government’s COVID-19 spending.
Sincerely,
Hon. Pierre Poilievre, M.P.
Shadow Minister for Finance
Dan Albas, M.P.
Shadow Minister for Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion
Raquel Dancho, M.P.
Shadow Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Youth
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