Well, I've been asked by a member present in the committee how that happens when the Prime Minister himself has some challenges in that regard in terms of attending question period during the week. It's a good question. It's one I'd like to pose, perhaps, to the minister if she came to committee: How is it that in the expenditure of tax dollars to pay your paycheque, you have been given permission to actually be absent and not present in most of the last five to six months?
Some of you may recall that famous debate by that great, great NDP leader Jack Layton. By the way, I knew his father, Bob Layton. I know that Jack Layton didn't advertise this in Parliament, but Bob Layton was elected in 1984 as a member of Parliament from a riding in Montreal in the massive Brian Mulroney sweep of 1984, when he won 211 of 282 seats. I think MP Blaikie's father was elected in that election. In this case, Jack Layton's father was elected and Brian Mulroney put him in the cabinet. He was the Minister of State for Mines.
In the cabinet shuffle in 1986, when my boss was moved out of junior minister of finance over to the role of privatization minister, Mr. Layton unfortunately was not in that cabinet then, but he eventually became caucus chair. I know that he was very proud of his son, who started the White Ribbon campaign to end violence against women after he left public office. I know, because I talked to him many times when he lived in Toronto, how proud he was of his son Jack.
Why wouldn't he be? Jack Layton fought over four elections as the leader, I think, although I stand to be corrected. In 2011, in the debate against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, this is what he said to Mr. Ignatieff: You know what? You have the worst attendance record in Parliament. People expect you to show up to work to get paid, not to get paid to stay home or do whatever you're doing. They expect you to show up when you get paid. You haven't been showing up. You have the worst attendance record in Parliament.
I would hope that the members of the NDP caucus, when they're having discussions on their supply arrangement with the government, would raise these concerns about the fact that the Minister of Finance seems to suffer from Ignatieff syndrome, that being the inability to find your way to Parliament Hill. It seems to have afflicted the Minister of Finance. I don't know if it's a communicable thing and like COVID was passed from person to person and got passed through the NDP caucus. Obviously, the part of Mr. Layton's admonition of the Liberal leader for not showing up to work hasn't been a communicable virus that spread to the Liberal cabinet, or we would see the Minister of Finance more frequently. We all know that we would appreciate her presence more to answer questions, as Treasury Board says we should.
This Treasury Board document, which is only 55 pages, says the following at the top of page 16:
Any member can ask any minister any question about his or her area of responsibility, without advance notice. By questioning ministers, parliamentarians hold the government to account in ways that apply appropriate political pressure, especially by raising public attention to a problem.
In some ways, I guess, we're doing that now in this committee. We're raising public attention to a problem. Not only is it a problem that the finance minister just says “yes” when asked to spend more money, because there is no plan to balance the budget, but we're also raising attention through this. We've been asked why we're doing this and why we'd like the minister here for two hours. It's because we'd like to raise public attention to the fact that we have a truancy problem in the House of Commons.
Yes, truancy; you remember that. I would never have spent a lot of time skipping classes. Far be it from me to do that.