Mr. Chair, I am continuing along the same lines by once more stressing how important it is for the public to be able to verify. In this case, it is a matter of changing one sentence in the bill for another sentence saying that the bank must receive the concurrence of the designated minister. The amendment seeks to increase the obligation to be accountable on the part of the minister responsible for this bank, who will probably be the designated Minister of Infrastructure and Communities.
The goal is to make the minister more accountable for everything that the infrastructure bank will do, and for potential failures. We want the legislation to clearly and precisely give parliamentarians the assurance that the minister is accountable to Parliament and that the bank's actions reflect that accountability. In the event of a failure, or any other situation—such as money being improperly spent, or put into the pockets of influential Liberals, to recall a time when the Liberal Party was looking after its friends—the minister with responsibility for this bank must be accountable to Canadians. We want to avoid a situation whereby the minister can say that the bank is independent, that he has nothing to do with it, that its leaders can do what they like, and that he washes his hands of it.
The danger to which we are exposed and that we are on the lookout for is that the minister can completely wash his hands of everything that goes on in the bank. My amendment seeks to give him a little more responsibility and oversight, and thereby to improve the accountability for the actions of the bank.
I ask for a recorded vote.