QUESTION PERIOD — Global Affairs
Departmental Spending
April 15, 2026
Senator Moreau, yesterday, I asked you a question about the military. I received a three‑page letter about two hours later. That has to be a world record in terms of a response to a question, so thank you very much, Senator Moreau.
Senator, a recent internal audit by Global Affairs Canada, GAC, reveals a troubling pattern of financial and administrative mismanagement by Canada’s missions abroad. The audit of GAC’s real property assets, worth over $3 billion, reveals that they are managed without even basic standards for document retention or centralized recording. Auditors found that, for 70% of sampled real property projects, the records were so poor that it was nearly impossible to determine where and how the funds were spent.
Leader, how can the government justify such a sloppy disregard for taxpayers’ money?
Thank you for your kind words. I can’t say the same for your question, though. No, I don’t have a specific answer to the question you are raising, senator, but maybe later today I will be able to answer that question — not as fast as I did yesterday, but nevertheless.
The Auditor General is there to underline whenever things are going inappropriately in government business. Most of the time, the answer is we accept the report of the Auditor General because we want to do what is best for Canadians. I will take your question and get back to you with an answer.
I don’t know if those measures or the correction measures that were suggested by the Auditor General have been implemented. If it is so, I will tell you that. I will answer your question more specifically.
Yes. Well, as an example, in one case, Canada’s embassy in Ethiopia deliberately bypassed Global Affairs Canada’s approval process to build a $145,000 party pavilion by falsifying invoices and hiding expenses inside its maintenance budgets.
How can Canadians have any confidence that the government is safeguarding public funds when this systemic negligence is allowed to continue?
I wouldn’t say that systemic negligence is allowed. I think that sometimes mistakes are made, and mistakes are there to be corrected. The government is committed to Canadians to make sure that if such a thing — I don’t know if the facts are straight, but if the facts are straight, I think that the government should act to make corrections, because it is not what Canadians deserve.
