Chair, it was said that it's a question about fairness.
This subamendment deals with the primary issue, which is to have carbon tax Carney come before the committee.
It also addresses the desire of Liberal members. They wanted to have Jenni Byrne come to committee. I suppose that's their purview. Ms. Byrne has a business under her name and it does zero federal lobbying. None. Ms. Byrne is also not a federal lobbyist, but they want her to come to committee.
Okay. We agree to invite Ms. Byrne to come to committee and talk about how she doesn't have any involvement in federal lobbying. If we're doing that—and it's a question about fairness that was raised by the Liberal members—then we need to have Don Guy come to committee. I want to tell you why.
The St. Albert Gazette published a Canadian Press article on September 10, 2024. The title is, “Carney interested in 'doing something, not being something,' he says of adviser role”. That's the adviser role he has with the Liberal Party.
The Canadian Press story states, “The Liberals called in veteran strategist Don Guy to give his insights on how to mount a comeback and go up against Poilievre as they prepare for the election year.”
Don Guy is a founding partner of a company called GT and Co, which, unlike Ms. Byrne's business, has a significant federal lobbying practice. Notable clients include Loblaws—perhaps that's how it got that fridge money from the Liberals, and Loblaws of course owns Shoppers Drug Mart—and the Canada Bread company, which, as we know, did plead guilty to price-fixing during a food price inflation and cost of living crisis.
With CN Rail, we know the concerns there caused a fracture in the confidence and supply agreement, which was the coalition with the NDP. The government seemed to have received a real nudge to get to binding arbitration. One might wonder if that came from Mr. Guy, who is a federal lobbyist for CN Rail and also Airbnb, which the Liberals and the NDP have both accused of making the housing crisis worse.
These are the clients of the individual, Mr. Guy, who is a federal lobbyist and who was speaking at the taxpayer-funded Liberal caucus retreat. Let's get real here. Let's talk about fairness. Let's have Mr. Guy come before committee. He can sit next to Ms. Byrne, who the Liberals want to have come to committee.
Mr. Guy employs the former director of caucus services and operations for the Liberal research bureau—Ms. DeWolfe had a five-year tenure—as well as other well-connected Liberals. Mr. Guy, as the owner of Pollara, employs Dan Arnold, who is also a fixture at taxpayer-funded Liberal caucus retreats.
This is Don Guy, the federal lobbyist, who sits in the room with the Prime Minister, his cabinet, his caucus and these Liberal members, behind closed doors, advising them and representing his clients simultaneously. His clients are Airbnb, which the Liberals have said made the housing crisis worse; CN Rail; the Canada Bread company, which pleaded guilty to price-fixing; and Loblaws. If we're getting fair, let's get fair, and let's have him come before the committee.
Now, along with Mr. Guy, we should include Brian Topp. He is the co-founding partner of GT and Co. Let's talk again about all of those examples that I gave, about federal lobbying that's done by that company—companies that have pleaded guilty of price-fixing, companies the Liberals have accused of exacerbating the housing crisis in our country and companies they've accused of gouging consumers.
Who is Mr. Topp? Mr. Topp is a noted New Democrat, the former chief of staff to Rachel Notley. He has these connections. He is the employer of that same former Liberal research bureau director responsible for caucus services and operations.
Topp and Guy should be sitting in seats 15 and 16, and we can save seat 17 for Ms. Byrne. Then, in seat 18, we should have Gurratan Singh, because we know that the NDP leader has said that he has him on his arm for media scrums and for advice, and that he's a lobbyist for Metro. Metro barely gets a mention from the NDP leader when he's talking about grocery giants. It's funny. I wonder why we don't hear much mention of Metro. It's highly suspicious indeed, some might say.
We want to see Topp, Guy, Singh and Ms. Byrne.
The difference, of course, with Ms. Byrne, is that she's the only one who's not a federal lobbyist. However, they want to have her, and they want it to be fair, so let's be fair. Let's have them come here, and they can all appear on a panel together.
There are a couple of important points in this motion. These individuals don't come before the committee, the invitations are not to be furnished to them, until we've had Mr. Carney appear, because Mr. Carney's ducked committees before. It's not acceptable that we don't have him come first.
If we're going to have the conversation about federal lobbying, we can deal with the many issues and the many conflicts of interest with carbon tax Carney—questionable practices with respect to lobbying. How did Brookfield get in the mix for what's going to be a very lucrative time? How is it that their stock price hit six-month highs, when one of their subsidiaries, the largest private mortgage insurer in Canada, is going to benefit from a Liberal government announcement.
All of these things happen. His buddy at Telesat is getting a $2-billion loan for satellite Internet service that doesn't have any satellites and isn't providing any Internet service. How did all of that good fortune land on all of these people who just happen to be connected to Mr. Carney in the hours that the ink's just drying on his agreement to become the de facto finance minister after Justin Trudeau's PMO said they didn't have confidence in Chrystia Freeland, the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister? How did that all come to happen?
What did Mr. Carney have to give up for that? Well, we've seen that he's now sending out fundraising letters for the Liberals.
We hope to have support from other members. We wanted to talk about fairness. This is fair. We're saying that the Conservative who has been suggested ought to appear, alongside the federal Liberal lobbyists who've been in the halls of power, who've been in the rooms behind closed doors when decisions are getting made, when strategy's being charted for the government and for their coalition partner. That's incredibly important.
When we have someone like the chair of Brookfield Global, this trillion-dollar, arch-capitalist everything company, we hope that we can do whatever it takes. We hope we can count on the NDP to do what it takes to bring Mr. Carney here to answer questions and answer for how he's enriching his friends in exchange for raising money for the Liberals. We hope the issue of fairness that was raised by the Liberal members has been addressed here.
Let's see Topp, Guy and Singh, and we can have Ms. Byrne alongside them, although she's not a federal lobbyist and they do federal lobbying. Is that okay? I think there was a concern that they were going to appear for less time than Mr. Carney, and I think that's been addressed as well. We'll have that panel for two hours. Those invitations will be sent out after Mr. Carney comes.
The most important thing isn't protecting people who share the party affiliation. It's accountability and transparency. It's about restoring Canadians' confidence.
Let's put it plainly. We want carbon tax Carney here. The poison pill the Liberals think they've put forward in having Ms. Byrne come.... We'll make sure that the invitation is hand delivered. Will they do the same with their strategists? Will the NDP do the same with their strategists? Let's see.
Let's see who's interested in fairness and accountability for Canadians and who's actually looking to circle the wagons and protect their insiders, who have had that privileged access behind closed doors while lobbying for their federal clients.
Let's see. The opportunity's here for everyone. They just need to reach out and take it.