Evidence of meeting #2 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
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—
Liberal
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.
Liberal
Conservative
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?
Liberal
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?
Liberal
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.
Conservative
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—
Liberal
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—
Conservative
Liberal
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.
Conservative
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.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
You can't talk about a branch or a leaf if you don't talk about the tree.
Liberal
Conservative
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.
Liberal
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Mr. Chair, it has some very deep roots that go deep in the ground.