Helping the poor, the less fortunate, the elderly, the disabled, racialized and Indigenous Canadians, Francophones, members of the LGBTQ community.

It is with heart in hand that the Trudeau government constantly pleads for more social justice.

But we again saw, yesterday, with the tabling of a handful of reports from the Auditor General of Canada, the limits of the policy of good feeling.

"I feel more frustrated than optimistic," Karen Hogan (pictured) dropped out of the way.

“There are a lot of commitments, a lot of action plans. But it's time for this to translate into concrete, real results for Canadians,” she added later in her press briefing.

The federal government offers very few services to the population. And when he is in charge, success stories are rare. Talk to the thousands of Canadians trying to get or renew their passports these days.

Long wait

Let's go back to Ms. Hogan, who has 16 years of experience as an auditor, including two years as boss.

“I would like to say that federal government programs and services improve when flaws are identified, but that is rarely the case. »

Examples ? Many social programs aimed at reducing poverty never reach their destination, and Ottawa does too little to eliminate the barriers that stand in the way of these vulnerable populations.

Whether it is to obtain the Canada child benefit or the Guaranteed Income Supplement for the poorest seniors, thousands of Canadians who are entitled to it do not receive their check.

In many cases, Ottawa just shrugs its shoulders.

Half of veterans wait more than 38 weeks for their benefit application to be processed, while the service standard is... 16 weeks. Francophones often wait even longer, 46 weeks!

"I conclude that the government has failed in its promise to care for veterans injured in service," Ms. Hogan said.

Racism in prison

Grand rhetoric about systemic racism has done nothing to stem the phenomenal overrepresentation of Indigenous people, and to a lesser extent, Black people in prison.

They also stay there longer, and in more severe conditions of detention. These two groups together constitute 51% of all maximum security detentions.

Indigenous people make up 4% of Canada's adult population, but 27% of federal inmates. It is even worse among women, who make up 43% of the prison population.

As for the diversity of prison officers, it has hardly progressed.

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada had made similar findings in 2015, 2016, 2017, without great results. “I think Canadians expect better from their federal government. It's time to turn promises into concrete actions,” Ms. Hogan said.

We can not say it better.