Mr. Chair, this viral pandemic has brought two opposite responses: one from the people and one from the federal government. People across Canada have soldiered on, accepting limits on their freedoms to protect vulnerable neighbours; parents have home-schooled; strangers have brought groceries to seniors; and first responders were honoured for their efforts.
All the while, the federal government has been doing its very best to hide information and ignore Parliament.
The access to information system has ground to a halt. All my ATIPs have been delayed by months, and Global Affairs Canada refuses to answer. The federal government is starving the Auditor General's office of millions needed for performance audits on the $300-billion deficit in spending. It sole-sourced a $105-million contract for two new executive jets from Bombardier. It went ahead with a secret $8.6-million renovation of Harrington Lake, the so-called “caretaker” house. The infrastructure minister claims privacy to hide from Parliament over 20,000 missing projects worth tens of billions of dollars.
This Liberal government believes that we only deserve the information that the Prime Minister deigns to give us.