Thank you.
You know, I reflect on the way in which people's perspective changes depending on where they sit. I always get a kick out of my Conservative friends for pursuing these kinds of red scare tactics when much of the work and relationship that Canada has with China—this is all on the record, like everything else—happened under the Harper government. It is what it is.
I'm not sure what has changed. The last time I checked, there wasn't some kind of massive switch in government there. Certainly the nuances in international diplomacy have changed. I'm not even clear that they're still a communist country. I'd say they're probably more state capitalist, but that's for people who probably have a better analysis on both economics and politics, which sometimes we seem to miss.
I would say this. In the opening remarks—this is a question I'm going to put through you, Mr. Chair, that hopefully Mr. Barrett can answer—there seemed to be an inference that by being the minister and being a member of this committee.... I'll admit that I'm not 100% apprised of it. Is there a conflict of interest? Is there a pecuniary interest? Is he being paid and compensated in ways that are untoward?
There's a whole conversation we can have around that. If there are those things, then I absolutely think it is worthy of this committee to examine. If that's not the case, and this is simply a way to drag a minister into this committee, then I would highly suggest, and I say this respectfully, that you bring it up in question period, which is a perfect way for you to hammer; you could do it every day. You could have a petition. You could do whatever, but in terms of spending our time in this committee, I would say that unless you have evidence that the minister has received contributions from the Chinese government that are not in keeping with our conflict of interest laws....
If he's being paid, compensated or influenced in any way, I'm all for it. If it's a headline in a story that people are uncomfortable that he's dealing with one of the largest industrial powers in the world around climate change, I'm not doing that here. That's where I am on that.
I will say this, and I'll take the privilege, although I know it was a notice: I happen to like the first notice of motion. I'm all for that. I think that's an important discussion, and at the appropriate time we should definitely be doing it. I don't want to see public funds used to greenwash industries, or the black hole of government money going to subsidize and line corporate pockets. I would rather see that invested in better ways.
I'm all for that, so at the appropriate time, if we're prioritizing where we're spending our time, I'll just put it to my friends in the Conservative caucus that I am much more interested in the motion that was put on notice than I am in this one.
Thank you.