The Department of Infrastructure has admited it misinformed Parliament and taxpayers under under then-Minister Catherine McKenna. Budget reports tabled in the House of Commons and published online misrepresented hundreds of millions in spending, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“Investments in national infrastructure priorities are incorrect,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry newly tabled in the Commons. It said misinformation and major errors were cited in at least four documents..The disclosure was prompted by an inquiry from Conservative MP Chris Warkentin (Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, AB) who asked, “How many times did the government put out misinformation or wrong information and what are the details of each instance?”.No other federal department or agency cited errors of the magnitude of the Department of Infrastructure. In one case, it tabled a Departmental Plan that misrepresented public works spending by $3.5 billion. “Two programs were inadvertently left out,” said the Inquiry..A separate 2019 Departmental Plan tabled in Parliament under-reported spending on internal services by $20.2 million. “Also two figures in the budgetary financial resources dedicated to program delivery for 2020 and 2021 have been revised,” wrote staff. Spending was off by $12 million..The department under McKenna repeatedly failed audits for failing to account for budgeted spending. “We need to do a better job of showing our work,” McKenna said at the time. The Liberal MP (Ottawa Centre, ON) did not seek re-election in 2021..Auditor General Karen Hogan in a 2021 audit Investing In Canada Plan said her office found incomplete records on spending under a mammoth public works program budgeted at $187.8 billion over 12 years. “We found there was a difference between the project list and the summary of spending,” said Hogan..A separate 2020 internal Audit Of Investing In Canada Infrastructure Program found two-thirds of projects approved by McKenna’s department failed mandatory checklists for “due diligence.” The Parliamentary Budget Office also complained it could not obtain a basic list of projects despite repeated requests. “We asked that question many, many times,” Budget Officer Yves Giroux testified at a March 11, 2020 hearing of the House of Commons finance committee..“You’re telling me the Government of Canada spends tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure but can’t give us an item by item list?” asked Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.). “True statement,” replied Giroux. “No complete list has been forthcoming. We’ve got only a partial list.”.“How many billions are missing from the list?” asked Poilievre. “It’s about half of the program,” replied Jason Jacques, director general of costing at the Budget Office.
