Mr. Champagne, you were appointed minister in early 2025. You did not table a budget. Your Prime Minister called an election, your financial platform was riddled with errors and was not balanced, and it included $20 billion in tariff countermeasures. It was embarrassing.
You returned in May, and on May 14, you announced that there would be no budget this autumn. You were publicly contradicted by your own Prime Minister. Last spring, you were asked to prepare a budget for this autumn, but you refused. Finally, after coming under pressure, you decided to prepare one.
For several weeks, we have been asking you whether there will be a budget next spring. You refused to say ‘yes.’ You refused to say ‘no.’ It was a complete lack of transparency. Meanwhile, the committee’s work was stalled. More than 200 groups in Quebec were unable to be heard in public, before the committee, rather than behind closed doors with the Liberals, at your home or at the Prime Minister’s home. These more than 200 groups will not be heard by the committee, even though you are championing pre-budget consultations.
Minister, is this the government’s new transparency, with the Prime Minister conducting consultations behind closed doors? You receive oil companies and your friends behind closed doors. Groups come to our offices to tell us that they have not even received acknowledgements of receipt from your department.
Is this the new way of making decisions for Canadians?