Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome back, Mr. Boissonneault.
Mr. Chair, when we first got the documentation on this, there had been a lot of discussion about the fact that old age security hadn't been talked about and that those changes weren't even raised in the last election. We looked at changes to employment insurance, and again, they hadn't been talked about, nor were the kinds of changes regarding the environment that are proposed in this bill.
However, the ones that jump out at me are the clauses that will remove the Auditor General's oversight from a number of agencies. The government members on this committee will tell us, and from their perspective it may be true, that the Auditor General offered up these changes. Perhaps he did, but he did so because he was told he had to cut a certain amount of money out of his operating budget. If it were not for the budget cuts by this government, I doubt very much the Auditor General would have offered up these changes unless he was put into that position.
It's clear the government is prioritizing significant budget cuts across the board in the areas I already talked about. They're making that choice in this case over the oversight of government operations and government accountability.
I'm one of the people who came into this House in the 2006 election. During that election we repeatedly heard from the opposition, which is now the government, about accountability and transparency. All of this certainly flies in the face of those proclamations in that election. They pointed their fingers toward the previous government about the things that were hidden, the mismanagement, the sponsorship scandal, and all of the things in that area, and said they were a significant problem. We agreed. Our party said there had to be more accountability.
When the Conservatives formed government, there was supposed to be a breath of fresh air in this place, but with this omnibus bill they are trying to ram legislation through our Parliament in a fashion that we've not seen. Yes, there have been large bills before, but never as comprehensive in the changes they were making.
The really serious part of this, and I've expressed this in my frustration here several times, is that this is happening without allowing Canadians to comment. It's happening without giving MPs the opportunity to undertake the due diligence necessary to thoroughly examine it and the implications, not only for today's citizens but for future generations.
I'm no expert on the environment. I'm not on this committee because I'm an expert on the environment. When those kinds of things are put before us, the EI changes I know something about, and OAS I would know something about, but the comprehensive changes are very challenging for all of us.
However, reducing and in some cases eliminating the oversight of the Auditor General over the operations of government, as I've already said, flies in the face of everything the Conservatives purported to represent when they were running in 2006. People at that time put their faith in them. Who would have thought that this type of thing would happen?
At this point I'm going to reserve to come back into the discussion. I'll allow other people to get in, because I need to sit back for a moment.