Thank you.
We are talking about Mr. Carney. Ms. Goodridge was talking about pipelines in Fort McMurray, if I recall, only five minutes ago, and I don't know what that had to do with Mark Carney either.
It's funny that Conservatives like to criticize and throw condemnations at other people, but if you bring up their record at any time, are they sensitive. Maybe there's a lesson there that if they don't like hearing about their own problems, issues or failures in government, maybe they should be a little bit more careful in how they attack others.
The points I was making are facts as opposed to things like repeatedly saying that the NDP has been in government with the Liberals for nine years, when that's just factually incorrect. I have told that to my Conservative colleagues many times, but they still say it, so they have disrespect for the truth. I don't know how far you can get into a debate if someone has that little respect.
With regard to Mark Carney, Conservatives seem to have an unhealthy obsession with this issue. I'm not quite sure. The funny thing about it, though, is this. It would be somewhat psychiatric to analyze, except that—and this is the part that I think Canadians who are watching should be concerned about—this is the finance committee, and we have a budget in front of us. Conservatives are concerned about the political future and possibilities of Mark Carney; I'm interested in the economic needs of Canadians. The funny thing about Conservatives is that they've slipped up. They have clearly revealed, on many occasions, that they want Mark Carney to come to this committee because they view him as a future leader of the Liberal Party. They view his political future and want to bring him here to this committee to question him on that.
It would have been one thing if they tried to hide it by limiting their interests to something that he might say about this budget or about the financial situation of Canadians but, of course, they can't do that because Mark Carney is a private citizen now. He was the Bank of Canada governor at one time and he was the governor of the Bank of England, but he is no longer, and they are clearly obsessed with his potential future as a leader.
I don't think that Canadians are interested in the political future of Mark Carney when we have a budget to pass that has immediate economic impacts upon them, their pain and their hurt, and I will say this: I give Conservatives credit, as do all colleagues around this table in the Liberal Party and my Bloc colleagues, because I think we all share an accurate description of many Canadians suffering and having a legitimate desire to have meaningful supports from government. We can disagree on what those supports may look like, and that's what we should be focusing on in the budget. For some reason, Conservatives want to hold that up. We've been talking for hours here. We're in extraordinary meetings at the finance committee because they insist on having Mark Carney come here instead of our being able to schedule the budget.
The pain and hurt that Canadians are feeling are not going to be ameliorated by our grilling Mark Carney on his political future. What will be of assistance to Canadians is debating the issues that arise in this budget, and there are major legitimate issues there. I want to hear from my Conservative colleagues where they think this budget gets it wrong and their suggestions for improving it. I want to hear my Bloc colleagues' suggestions in that regard, and I have my own thoughts as well, so I wonder where this filibuster by the Conservatives is going. They seem to have made a decision that they want to hold up this committee until they get Mark Carney to testify. Interestingly, there was a way to do that last week in a subcommittee when we were sitting there trying to decide on an agenda. Conservatives well know that there were different possibilities.
I've said this before, and I'll say it for the record: We have to call witnesses to this committee on the budget. We have meetings scheduled in two weeks. According to the motion, if we pass it, we'll have meetings in two weeks. Every party around this table will be able to nominate witnesses, and Conservatives can nominate Mark Carney as a witness if they want. Nothing stops them from doing that. That's how witnesses get here. They know that. Canadians should know that. If Conservatives want Mark Carney at this committee, they can have him here in two weeks if they want. They just have to put him down as their number one witness.
Of course, the reason they will deny that and the reason they're filibustering is that they're afraid Mark Carney may turn down their request, as witnesses have the right to do.
Given the way the Conservatives are speaking about Mark Carney and given that they have zero interest in hearing Mark Carney's legitimate thoughts on the budget or on finances but really want to grill him on his political aspirations, I well understand why Mark Carney wouldn't want to dignify that kind of approach by coming here, because it's subterfuge. The Conservatives are pretending to want Mr. Carney to come here on the economy, when in fact what they really want to do is a political—