I did get in trouble for talking in class. I admit it. I'm guilty as charged. But truancy is an issue when you don't show up. We know that the people who didn't show up in class were generally the underperformers. Not showing up at class is not only an underperformance; it also contributes to your continued underperformance in the future.
I think that's why “truancy” is an apt name for this bill. This is a bill from a truant finance minister who, if we'd been able to hold her to account, might have been more sensitive to the needs of Canadians and other communities and their concern about how these spending pressures are driving up their everyday costs.
When you're not available to have those questions asked, and when you're not held accountable, it's sort of like, as somebody recently said—perhaps it was in question period today—when you're trying to find Nemo or on a search for Freeland; sometimes with the responses in question period, because the Minister of Finance isn't available, it's like we're playing whack-a-mole. One minister pops up here to answer a question on finance, and then the Minister of Sport gets up and answers a question about the budget even though the Minister of Sport is not responsible for the budget. Then the Minister of Public Safety will get up.
These are kind of odd things, because we aren't seeing, in some cases, that they are personally responsible. We do know, though...and I could go back, if you wish, to the parts of this paper that talk about the collective responsibility of cabinet ministers. Maybe that's what they're doing. They all feel that they're just as responsible for this mess as the minister.
They are collectively like those times in high school when some folks were truant and would come back and say, “Can I have your notes? Maybe I'll be able to write the mid-term test with your notes.” It feels to me like these cabinet ministers are keeping the notes for the finance minister, but something's getting lost in translation when they're giving those notes to the truant finance minister.