QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
COVID-19 Pandemic--Spending
March 17, 2021
Honourable senators, my question is also for Senator Gold. Senator Gold, in the Main Estimates document for next year I see that the government has further reduced the already meagre amount of information it provides on COVID-19 spending. Supplementary Estimates (A), (B) and (C) tagged COVID-19 spending within each department and agency so we could see the COVID-19 initiatives within those departments. But the Main Estimates for the new year doesn’t do this.
For example, on the government’s website, it says $22 billion in total COVID-19 spending is planned for the new year; $8 billion is for the Public Health Agency. Yet when you look at the Public Health Agency, there is no information at all on the COVID-19 spending. But when you compare that to Supplementary Estimates (C), the Public Health Agency of Canada discloses information on 16 COVID-19 initiatives.
My question is this: Why is the government not disclosing the COVID-19 spending initiatives in the Main Estimates?
Senator Marshall, thank you for your question and your continuing diligence in holding the government to account for the information that it provides.
I don’t have the specific answer that you requested. I expect that those better positioned to answer it can and will be questioned when they appear, as they do on a regular basis, before our committees or the Senate.
Senator Gold, regarding the amount of information the government provides on the COVID-19 spending, they started out not bad, providing biweekly reports. They stopped doing that. It just seemed that as they were providing information and people were using it, they decided they were no longer going to provide it. So it’s a worrying trend. They’re going in the opposite direction and transparency is eroding. The impression left is that the government is getting out of reporting its COVID-19 spending.
Can you confirm that the government now plans to discontinue identifying its COVID-19 spending all together?
Senator, I’m not in a position to confirm or deny. I will make inquiries as to the long-range plans. I can only say that the government and the relevant ministers have been very open with Canadians about the programs they are putting into place to provide support for Canadians and shall continue to do so.
