Another day, another boondoggle story. Another question period, another stonewalling performance from the HRDC Minister. Go to sleep, do the same thing tomorrow.

Repeat tomorrow. It's like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. The only difference is that Groundhog Day didn't cost taxpayers millions, if not billions of dollars.

To recap, an internal HRDC audit of 459 files across seven program areas pointed to serious problems (read: gross financial mismanagement) within the department. They found:

97% of all files lacked backgound checks;

80% showed no evidence of financial monitoring;

72% had no cash flow forecast

25% had no description of what the money was going to support;

and 15% of grant recipients didn't even have an application in their files.

Indeed, 37 of these 459 files revealed serious problems. Overpayments, expense claims which don't qualify, and organizations which just didn't maintain proper records, yet millions of dollars continued to flow.

It's a mess and taxpayers are demanding answers. Here are five simple questions for HRDC Minister Jane Stewart.

Q: Minister, is this audit a representative sample of the administration of the 30,000 plus annual job creation grants run by HRDC which tally between $1 billion and $3 billion a year

This is the one question that neither the Minister nor her officials will answer. Be it Question Period, a committee hearing or a news conference - this question has been asked repeatedly, yet all involved are incapable of responding with a simple Yes or No.

Q: The Minister saw the audit results on November 17 and she herself reportedly "hit the roof." If she was so upset, why did HRDC continue to spend millions

The opposition has now revealed that in the 24 hours after November 17, the Minister signed off on 6 more HRDC job grant projects totaling close to $1 million.

Q: Job grants are supposed to help small and mid-sized companies in economically depressed areas, so why did retailing giant Wal-Mart get at least $500,000 to build a distribution outlet near Cornwall

This just points to the absolute absurdity of all these so-called job creation programs. And we thought it was only Industry Canada that excelled at giving away tax dollars to poverty stricken multinational corporations.

Q: Why did Transitional Jobs Funding (TJF) funding spike just before and during the 1997 campaign

Of the $281 million squandered in the TJF program from 1996 to 1999, a plurality of projects were approved or spent in the run-up to and during the 1997 federal election. Quebec received the most funding, followed by Newfoundland then Ontario. Don't let the government apologists spin you, this was nothing more than a crass attempt to buy votes. The Liberals will trot out stats to show spending in many opposition ridings, but what people fail to realize is that these are mostly swing ridings where the Liberals were in tough fights to make gains.

Q: Why does the government show no remorse or contrition

The Liberals believe they have done nothing wrong. Look at their smiles and laughter during question period, mismanagement of tax dollars is mere sport for them. The trust of the people has evaporated in the last three weeks. And when a government loses trust, it usually doesn't find it again - just ask David Peterson, Bob Rae or Brian Mulroney.