QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
COVID-19 Pandemic Response Plan
February 16, 2021
Honourable senators, my question is also for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.
Senator Gold, over the past year I’ve been trying to track government’s COVID-19 spending, and despite the unprecedented level of spending, financial and program spending is almost impossible to find. I’ve asked you in this chamber. I’ve asked the Minister of Finance and the President of Treasury Board looking for the information. Even the Senate’s National Finance Committee recommended that this information be provided.
Last week, there was a Global News article indicating that senior political staffers from the Prime Minister’s Office and another cabinet minister’s office privately discussed in June the withholding of information from Canadians about the government’s response to COVID-19. Specifically, the Liberal staffers were concerned that government could be held accountable for the billions of dollars in spending if it provided too much information.
Senator Gold, now that it’s out in the open that government is deliberately withholding this information, can you explain why the government is withholding the information from Canadians, the very people who are going to pay for these programs?
Thank you, senator, for your question and for your ongoing determination to get access to and have clearer ways in which financial information can be analyzed and dealt with.
This government has been transparent with Canadians, and the discussions that take place between ministers and their staff as they struggle to work through all of the issues are normal parts of the operations of government. The fact is that the government has been clear about what it is spending and on what it is spending, and ministers have appeared in this chamber and have been questioned by senators as they should be.
In addition, senator, I would hope, as I have proposed in the past, that either a special committee of the Senate or, indeed, the Finance Committee or other committees will take up the challenge of analyzing, at the appropriate time, the lessons learned from this extraordinary period that we’re living through.
Senator Gold, given the amount of information, though, I haven’t been able to find it in the time I’ve devoted to tracking the information, I can assure you that the government has not been transparent.
But I would like to shift now from that spending that they’ve already done. I’d like to look to the future a little bit. Two years have passed now without a budget — two full years. Can you tell us when the government will table its budget for 2021?
Thank you for your question. I think all Canadians are eager for the budget. I do not have a specific date to report. The fiscal update that the minister provided gave Canadians a good picture of where we were. The new Minister of Finance is working diligently on her first budget, and we look forward to receiving it in a timely fashion.
