Thank you, Mr. Chair.
When we got to the Volkswagen part, the Volkswagen comments were from Mr. Carney, but the subsequent comments on Volkswagen, about the government subsidizing a company that's misled the world, are editorial comments for sure. Let's make no mistake.
It would be good to ask Mr. Carney whether he thinks the auto subsidies are appropriate, especially as Mr. Carney has experience working in the Department of Finance during the financial crisis, during 2008-09, when the then-government bailed out General Motors and Chrysler for substantial sums.
I would point out, Mr. Chair, that when those bailouts were provided, the governments—including the U.S. government but more importantly the Canadian government—received equity. We'll just use General Motors as an example. For the bailout, the Canadian taxpayer received equity—as in shares—in General Motors, which was then able to be sold to recoup some of the initial bailout.
This government has provided—I think I've lost count—$40-some-odd billion to subsidize electric vehicle battery plants. You could buy the entire Ford Motor Company for half of that. The government could have actually just gone out and purchased an entire car company for half of the amount of money that it's providing in subsidies and corporate welfare for the auto sector, for which we don't even get any equity. There's a promise of some jobs, but there's no upside for the actual taxpayer other than those people who live...and might actually have employment.
Set aside the fact the government just gave $1.7 million for pasta.