Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Actually, I'm going to use this opportunity now to move my motion that I served on December 8. I know that the clerk will probably now try to find it and distribute it to members because she has a copy of it, but I will read it now so that everyone, as they're waiting for it, can understand what I'm doing.
I move:
That the Special Committee on the Canada-People’s Republic of China Relationship express its deep disappointment that the Finance Minister ignored invitations sent by the committee; and, that the Minister of Finance has chosen not to appear during the committee’s meeting on Canada’s freeze in government-led activity with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; and that this be reported to the House.
I am moving this motion because, as I look at this now, the first invitation went to the finance minister's office on October 27. It is now January 29. That is four months of our committee clerk sending requests to the Minister of Finance to give us dates to appear on the study—four months—and there has not been a single date that has been given to this committee. This is an important issue. During testimony at this committee, Mr. Steven Kuhn from the Government of Canada said, “I am aware that there are instances of projects that have been approved by the AIIB where Canada and other partners around the board have raised questions about forced labour and where Canada's engagement has not allowed for those projects to be blocked as a result of that.”
It's very clear that Canadian taxpayer dollars went into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and then funded projects that may have used forced labour. That the finance minister will not even give us a date to come and testify is, I think, deeply disrespectful to this committee. It's deeply disrespectful to members of this committee to not have responded, and I think that the minister should have responded and given us dates. Given that she's clearly not going to, we should express our deep disappointment in the finance minister. That's why I move my motion.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.