Thank you very much.
The motion reads as follows:
That, further to the evidence received by the committee pursuant to the motion adopted on Monday, April 24, 2023, and in relation to the redactions and improper translation of documents received by the committee pursuant to the order for production of documents adopted by the committee on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, the committee is of the opinion that there is a potential breach of privilege which must be reported to the House, and therefore,
a) The draft report prepared by the analysts on this issue be amended to identify the following departments, agencies and crown corporations that did not comply with the committee’s order to produce unredacted documents, or did not adequately translate documents prior to their submission,
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Business Development Bank of Canada
Canada Border Services Agency
Canada Development Investment Corporation
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
Canada Post
Destination Canada
Department of Finance Canada
Employment and Social Development Canada
Export Development Canada
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
National Defence
Natural Resources Canada
Office of the Veterans Ombud (Veterans Affairs Canada)
Privy Council Office
That's no surprise.
Public Sector Pension Investment Board
Public Services and Procurement Canada
TransMountain Corporation;
b) The draft report, as amended, be adopted;
c) The report be entitled: Question of Privilege on Providing Documents to the Committee;
d) The Chair, Clerk and analysts be authorized to make such grammatical and editorial changes as may be necessary without changing the substance of the report;
e) Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request that the government table a comprehensive response to this report;
f) The dissenting or supplementary opinions be in Calibri 12-point font, left aligned, single-spaced, and be submitted electronically, in both official languages, to the clerk of the committee, not later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, June 23 2023;
g) And that the Chair present this report to the House at the earliest opportunity.
Mr. Chair, again, we have requested these documents three times. I would remind my opposition colleagues that we would not have had to spend so much time on this matter had we just received the documents properly translated and in an unredacted form. Alas, we did not. We did not for reasons of the government as well as opposition members. That's why we continue on this. The first time was on January 18. The second time was a March 5 request by the chair. The third time was on March 8.
I will also say that we had such a delay, our poor analysts had to redraft the report a second time, wasting their time as well. If we had just dealt with the matter at hand, which was getting the documents that we were entitled to as parliamentarians, having passed a motion, with all opposition parties at that time in agreement.... I'm not sure why things changed. I guess it's like a relationship; things change sometimes.
We don't have those documents. As such, we unfortunately find ourselves in this position today.
I know that Ms. Vignola has also pointed out several times that we unfortunately didn't get the documents in both official languages. She also said that the quality of the translated French wasn't as good as the English.
That is a shame as well.
Mr. Chair, I'm putting this forward today. This is despite the government not wanting us to see these documents. It is evident that this is happening. It is evident that this is happening at the highest level of government with the PCO here today. Despite that, and despite opposition members who were once on board with transparency in the fight against a company that is corrupt, a company that has fuelled the opioid crisis, something that I thought the member on this side of the table was committed to getting to the bottom of and solving, here we are—