You often hear the American left saying "You brought it on yourselves - you voted him in!" I tend to feel that way about Canada. Despite my vote, and the votes of many others, we still managed to welcome in the thieving Liberals again. We must be suckers for punishment.

From Macleans:

Auditor General Sheila Fraser is raising the alarm over billions of taxpayer dollars channelled into arms-length government foundations not subject to public scrutiny. The lack of oversight means it's possible foundation money could be misused in the same way tax dollars were wasted in the sponsorship scandal, warned opposition MPs.

Fraser didn't shoot down such concerns, saying that since she can't audit foundations, she doesn't know what might be going on within.

Critics also complained that the government is playing a shell game, putting money into foundations to artificially lower controversial budget surpluses.

Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal government is frequently criticized for trying to downplay and underestimate the size of its massive surpluses.

More than $9 billion that would otherwise swell federal surpluses has been invested in agencies like the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, which don't face adequate oversight despite previous complaints, the auditor general said in her latest report Tuesday.

Why do we keep doing it to ourselves? What is this need to be robbed and abused by our government? $9 billion is a lot of money. It would more than pay for new hospital equipment, and more nursing staff. It would shore up our weakening CPP. And if the government insisted on doing it, it would pay for the child care scheme, and still buy a helluva lot of golfballs with the leftover change!

More importantly, it would - and should - come back to us. The voters. The lemmings. That $9 billion and more belongs to you and I. The government is supposed to be a not-for-profit enterprise. Anything left over from last year means they take less from us this year. That's how it's supposed to work.

"Given the significant sums involved, I am concerned about the lack of adequate accountability to Parliament," Fraser wrote.

"Important gaps remain in the external audit regime and ministerial oversight."

Her review comes a week before the federal budget which some say could include plans to sink billions more into new foundations, perhaps to fund a national child-care program.

Fraser's review, looking back over eight years, found that only a small portion of foundations funding has been spent. Fully $7.7 billion is still sitting in accounts, building up interest.

That's not a complete surprise, since Ottawa tends to put all the funding in place immediately, even though the spending stretches out over several years far from the scrutiny of MPs.

And since foundations don't face performance audits - essentially reviews of value for public money - there's no way of knowing exactly how all the funds are managed.

I'm sorry, but with this government's track record, I don't hold out very high hopes of what our money is doing.

The left cried out the loudest when the Enron scandal broke. After all, that was money that people invested their pensions and security in. How shameful, for those fatcats to make off with the dosh while innocent people were left penniless. Why can't these left-leaning people see that the same thing is being done to them - to all of us - by people they chose, and not just by some nameless guy in a suit. The government does not hold any authority over us that we do not allow them to hold. If we don't want our savings raped for special interest groups, shady "funds" and "sponsorships", and the CBC, we have the power to say NO. We have the power to bring in someone to put an end to these practices. but for some reason, we simply do not. We don't want to. We prefer to see our futures, our savings, our paychecks dwindle down to nothing, while those who we put in charge of our finances are held unnacountable. We don't want to know about their inpropriety. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Opportunities for misuse of public funds are simply too great to close these agencies to full parliamentary scrutiny, said Conservative MP John Williams.

"There's always an opportunity for a sponsorship scandal to be hidden anywhere," he said.

If nothing else, the government shouldn't be tucking away billions of dollars in foundations where the public can't see how it's being used, added New Democrat Peter Julian.

"The auditor general has said she is not satisfied that we know what is happening with that money," said Julian.

"There's some real concern about the hide-seek that is being played."

But Treasury Board President Reg Alcock said he's satisfied with internal audits done by the foundations.

"They are accounting for it in all possible manners and are quite willing to have evaluations," Alcock told the House of Commons.

Fraser also noted that certain funds, such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation, continue to grow as Ottawa frequently tops them up with new tax dollars - even though they can't spend the budgets they already have.

Give it to me! I know where I can spend it! My RRSP needs some extra funding this year, and I have zero savings thanks to our trans-atlantic move and the ongoing immigration struggle for Mr. Right. Couldn't you think of a couple of things to spend that money on, too?

Last year, Ottawa estimated a $1.9-billion surplus - limiting opposition demands for tax cuts or spending hikes - then was embarrassed when the surplus actually hit $9.1 billion.

And our accountants are dyslexic. Insult to injury.