Finance Committee on Oct. 21st, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We have a point of order from Mr. Fragiskatos.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

The member ought to know, as finance critic, that the debt-to-GDP ratio is 48%, which comparably is extremely low—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I don't think that—

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

I just want the record to reflect the facts, Mr. Chair. As a committee, I think we deserve that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

That's not a point of order.

We will go back to you, Mr. Poilievre.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

The deficit is the largest in the G20 this year.

It is true that past governments have bequeathed good, solid financial health to this Prime Minister, but he's working with great haste to burn all of those riches and leave the present generation—forget future ones—empty-handed.

I'll go back to my original point.

What the hell is this government hiding so that they're prepared to shut Parliament down?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Poilievre—

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

On a point of order—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll go to your point of order, Mr. Fraser, but Mr. Poilievre, could we hear relevance to the subamendment?

What's your point of order, Mr. Fraser?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

My point of order is on the use of unparliamentary language.

I think the honourable member knows the language he's using to make his point, while it may increase the number of people who watch his YouTube video, is not appropriate when we're sitting in a parliamentary setting.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

It's a valid point.

Go ahead, Mr. Poilievre.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Well, Mr. Chair, no one wants to go there, but the reality is that the government is going to some incredible lengths to hide some ugly truths.

If the Prime Minister was not afraid of what could come out in this scandal, he wouldn't have crippled three parliamentary committees with an endless stream of speeches about everything from Greek philosophers to cartoon characters in order to burn up committee time and prevent us from getting to motions that would release unredacted documents to the public. He wouldn't have shut Parliament for six weeks, nor would he have threatened an election today.

It's ironic that today in the House of Commons, in a related motion, Mr. Chair, the Prime Minister said he would call an election if a committee looked into the WE scandal.

He could not name a single, solitary policy objective that the opposition is hindering, so clearly this election threat has nothing to do with protecting Canadians in the pandemic and everything to do with protecting him from accountability.

I would ask members to quickly adopt the motion for my point of privilege, so that we can get the unredacted documents—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Poilievre, I do hate to interrupt you, but we're not on your motion. We're on the subamendment to the amendment. I can't—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

It's to the motion—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

It's the subamendment to the amendment to the motion—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

That's right, so we.... Mr. Chair, you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We are speaking on the subamendment now, so it would be nice to have a little close relevance to that.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

You can't comment on the subamendment to the amendment to the motion if you don't talk about the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

You weren't on the motion.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

You can't talk about a branch or a leaf if you don't talk about the tree.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

The trouble is you weren't talking about the tree, Pierre.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

I was right in the root of the tree, and I'm trying to get to the root of this scandal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I tell you, the tree's a tall one. You're in the clouds.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Chair, it has some very deep roots that go deep in the ground.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Go ahead.