Privilege  Madam Speaker, I wish the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay well. I know that he will be around for a little bit longer, but I do wish him well on his announcement of his forthcoming retirement from active politics. I am sure he will be involved in other ways. To his question, he is right.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil for the excellent work he is doing as chair of the ethics committee, which has been working overtime these last number of months to root out scandal and corruption. He talks about the decline in democracy and the challenges that we as parliamentarians face in getting information.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, if we are going to go back nearly 18 years in history, let us remember the very first action of the former Conservative government. Bill C-2, the very first bill introduced by the Conservative government in 2006, was the Federal Accountability Act, an act that directly came as a result of the Liberal sponsorship scandal of the previous Liberal government.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, in a moment I will speak more specifically about questions of privilege in this place, but I want to start off more broadly on the privileges and the rights of this institution. Indeed, our House is founded on centuries of precedent, and that precedent is interpreted and applied by the protector of the House, the Speaker of the House.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, one of the key concerns that was raised by the Auditor General in the ArriveCAN report was the lack of documentation. The Auditor General herself said that the most surprising thing for her was what she did not find: documentation. She did not find copies of contracts confirming this.

Right Hon. Brian Mulroney  Madam Chair, “Am I remembered in Erin, I charge you, speak me true? Has my name a sound, a meaning, in the scenes my boyhood knew?” These are the words of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, shared by Prime Minister Mulroney at the funeral of the late Ronald Reagan. Like Thomas D'Arcy McGee, it is natural for those who serve in public life to question and wonder whether their memories will live on past their earthly lives.

Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act  Mr. Speaker, it is obviously with great regret that this House has learned of the passing of Canada's 18th prime minister, the Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney. Obviously, all members join us in wishing the Mulroney family our deepest sympathy at this time as they deal with the loss of this great statesman, who has done so much for our country.

Memorial Park in Listowell  Mr. Speaker, February 28, 1959, would come to be known as Listowel's darkest day. It was a Saturday morning, like any other, and the town's peewee hockey team was on the ice, but at 9:27 a.m., the arena's roof collapsed, killing seven boys and the town's recreation director. The town came together and supported those who were injured, grieved with the families of those lost and pledged to remember the eight lives lost.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to table the Conservative dissenting report to this report. Conservative members on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts demand action be taken, given the incompetence of government ministers when it comes to building a hydrogen industry in Canada.

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister easily found $60 million for his ArriveCAN app, but he still wants to quadruple the carbon tax on gas, groceries and home heating. While the typical Canadian family will pay $700 more to put food on the table this year, the Prime Minister is raising the carbon tax by 23% on April 1.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, for two years, parliamentary committees have been investigating the cozy relationship between government officials and highly paid insiders. Documents tabled at committee showed that the two-person-in-a-basement firm GC Strategies was hosting dinners and whiskey tastings for the same government officials who were giving multi-million-dollar contracts, all while government officials were getting mighty high bonuses.

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, my colleague from Regina—Lewvan is unfortunately correct that the current Speaker is the only one to have broken the ethics law and to have been found in violation by the Ethics Commissioner for past actions, so that is a concern, and this ties into some of the concerns we all had when we tried to provide him with the benefit of the doubt, when he was first elected, with respect to his past partisan activities.

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, I am troubled by it. I am troubled by the entire situation. We ought not to be in a situation of removing Speakers prior to the end of a term. One of the reasons we elect a Speaker at the beginning of the term is that they ought to be there for the entirety of the Parliament, so we can build the trust that they are there from a non-partisan perspective for the entirety of the Parliament.

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. Bloc Québécois whip for that great question. I agree that we need to know why the Speaker did not provide all the information to the committee. Why did he not say that he had attended a partisan event in Pontiac hosted by the Liberal Party of Quebec, with Liberal supporters from Quebec, and that donations were solicited by people at the event?

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, the member for North Island—Powell River made the comment that the Speaker should be above partisanship, and I would hope that all of us in the House can agree that whoever is the Speaker of the House of Commons has to not only be above partisanship, but also be seen to be above partisanship.