Well, if Ms. Church wants to talk about facts, let me tell her a few facts about the Ethics Commissioner.
First of all, he hasn't responded to Mr. Barrett's letter. There were some very specific points that were raised, some specific allegations, specific references to sections of the Conflict of Interest Act. There has been no response from the Ethics Commissioner, and yet members opposite have suggested that. In fact, I think Mr. Sari, in his comments, opened by saying that Mr. Barrett had done such a great job doing his due diligence, sending a letter to the Ethics Commissioner, and that the Ethics Commissioner has responded. Well, no, Mr. Sari, the Ethics Commissioner has not responded to Mr. Barrett. In fact, the Ethics Commissioner hasn't, to my knowledge, made a statement regarding what appears to be a conflict of interest involving the Minister of Finance.
What I saw was a statement quoted in a CTV news story by someone in the Ethics Commissioner's office that is less than satisfactory in the face of the very serious issues and serious questions about the minister's involvement in handing out billions of dollars to Alto. By the way, if everything is so clear and obvious with the Ethics Commissioner, why is it that when the Minister of Finance has been asked to provide documentation, proof, that everything is on the up and up, he can't do that? He can't do that and won't do that and won't answer questions and is in hiding.
With respect to some of the arguments, if you can call them arguments, put forward by Mr. Sari as to why the CEO of Alto shouldn't appear, he said, first of all, that we don't need to hear from the CEO of Alto because the Ethics Commissioner is coming to committee. That is a circular argument. Of course the Ethics Commissioner is coming to committee. We need to hear from the Ethics Commissioner. No one is debating that. That doesn't provide any answer as to whether we need to also hear from the CEO of Alto.
Mr. Sari went on to say that the CEO of Alto is a CEO involved in a high-speed rail project and that he couldn't provide any relevant information on matters of ethics. In fact, Mr. Sari said he had no idea what questions he could possibly pose to the CEO of Alto. Give me a break. Respectfully, Mr. Chair, give me a break. We're not asking the CEO of Alto to come as some sort of expert on ethics. We're not asking him to come before this committee to provide his interpretation of various sections of the Conflict of Interest Act. Mr. Sari characterized him as coming in that capacity, to speak on matters of ethics. What is he talking about? What planet is he living on? What planet are those members living on? That's not why we want to hear from the CEO of Alto.
I want to hear from the CEO of Alto for a few reasons. The first is that the Minister of Finance has declared a conflict in respect of Alto and quite appropriately so, given that his partner is a vice-president. The Minister of Finance claimed that he set up an ethics screen, that he acted proactively, yet for a minister who set up an ethics screen, who was being so proactive, it was all very secret. No one had heard of this ethics screen. He never spoke about this ethics screen. He never spoke about this conflict until he got caught, and then all of a sudden, there was an ethics screen, and then he said he acted proactively.