Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Yes, on the motion, it's been about a week now that Mr. Barrett has been fishing. Yesterday, the Conservatives disrupted the HUMA committee while they were doing main estimates arguably to get their glorious social media clips and attack the reputation of the minister, but they got the facts wrong about this news story. They were corrected numerous times during the meeting yesterday.
First they claimed that he was in violation of section 4 of the Conflict of Interest Act. As the minister pointed out, in the Global News story itself the Ethics Commissioner's office confirmed that he met all of the requirements of the code. They claimed that the minister inappropriately awarded funds to a company, but as he pointed out, these grants went to the Edmonton International Airport. These grants were awarded by departments that didn't report to the Minister of Transportation and Prairies Canada. They incorrectly stated that the company, Navis Group, received millions in contracts when, in fact, those funds went to the Edmonton International Airport, which is, by the way, the fifth-largest airport in the country.
Mr. Barrett incorrectly stated that the minister was the owner of a company when that wasn't the case. That was pointed out to him. He scrambled and incorrectly said that the minister had an interest in that company. Again, Mr. Chair, I believe this is a fishing expedition by the opposition and by Mr. Barrett specifically. I can only assume that they've read the articles and they know that the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner cleared the minister in this.
I find it a little bit ironic and kind of appropriate that during the study of misinformation and disinformation, we're having a conversation about things that are clearly misinformation and disinformation. Again, it's all for the glorious social media clip.