I'm trying to find that happy place, Mr. Chair, because what I've experienced here since the resumption of Parliament has been straight out of the Harper government playbook. You'll recall that back in 2007 there was an actual book, a 200-page handbook, on proof of the toxic atmosphere that paralyzed Parliament. You'll recall that, at that point in time, there were actually reported instructions on how to filibuster and otherwise disrupt committee proceedings and, if all else failed, to shut down the committee entirely. That has been my feeling, both as it relates to my particular motion—which would have been a routine motion at any other committee, to simply resume the work that we were supposed to do, all the points of the work that we were supposed to do—and all of this talk, Mr. Chair, about trying to adjourn this debate, to then go back to schedule what?
I am unclear, Mr. Chair. Through you to members of this committee, when you look back at all the playbooks and all the tactics that the Harper government used, the only thing the New Democrats and the Liberals agreed on at that time was that the dysfunction was part of a long-term strategy to persuade voters that minority parliaments don't work and that they need to elect a majority. I'm starting to feel as though that's the case now. I'm starting to feel as though much of the disruption with these frivolous points of order and these shenanigans that are coming is really set to frustrate the processes of committee work.
Mr. Chair, my motion was very clear. In fact, I thought I was pretty graceful in entertaining some potential to revisit, in some of my conversations with my Liberal friends, what the scope of work was, whether it was before COVID—which I was fine with—or whether it was up to the date in question. However, if one thing has been made clear by the motion by my friend Mr. Paul-Hus, it's that there is absolutely no interest on the part of the government to revisit the work we've done prior to this committee in substantive ways that would present some kind of accountability.
We have significant issues with procurement. We've heard today, Mr. Chair, people talk about how much PPE has been produced. Nobody's talking about the national emergency stockpile and all the PPE that was thrown out, or the blunder in procurement of the first four months of this pandemic, or the 11 million items of PPE that were purchased, nine million of which were garbage. We couldn't even use them. We still, to this day, don't know what the national standards for the national emergency strategic stockpile are. We still have no clear picture about where we're spending money, whom we're spending money with and what we're investing in as it relates to procurement. Yet, we have these scenarios, these self-owned.... The only reason we're caught in the quagmire is that it seems this government can't help itself from helping itself.
Frank Baylis is a significant issue. Two hundred-plus million dollars is not immaterial when it comes to contracts. Morneau losing his job as the finance minister is not immaterial when it comes to ethics and overview.
If the question being put by government is “Why are we dealing with this stuff?”, the question back is simply “Why did you have to go down these paths of very grey-area politics, which at first blush of the public wouldn't pass the sniff test?”
Mr. Chair, the only saving grace I have from today's meeting is the fact that we're not in camera, because, as my old football coach used to say, the eye in the sky doesn't lie. In all the chaos that was the first hour of this meeting, with trying to get to a point where we could get some business done, people know who was speaking. People know who took up the vast periods of time and people will also recognize, Mr. Chair, who tried to move immediately into another adjournment.
I'm not sure what the prerogative of the government is. As a New Democrat, I'm going to share with you that we fought to continue to allow this government to work, despite the best or worst efforts—depending on whom you're talking to—of Liberals and Conservatives to trigger an election. I'm going to say this, that my gut feeling right now—