Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We've just heard the former finance minister under Kathleen Wynne talk for half an hour about transparency and economic management, and I would just briefly encourage the listening public to consider the source.
I will be brief in my comments, because I think the positions of all of the parties are very clear at this point and I think it's time for the committee to pronounce itself one way or the other.
Conservatives are looking at the fact that over $40 billion are earmarked to be spent on corporate subsidies, and we believe that in such cases the people who are working hard and paying the taxes that go into those subsidies deserve to see the contract. That's a simple principle we will stand on that when you have massive corporate subsidies involved, there's a certain basic amount of information that the people who are paying for those subsidies deserve to get to see, especially when we're talking now about a situation in which a large amount of the jobs ostensibly being created by this spending are jobs for foreign workers, not Canadians.
The members of the government say, “We're doing awesome. These are great. We're really happy with what a great job we're doing.” That's what the government will tell you. We've said, “Show your work, then. If you're happy with what you're doing, if you think these contracts are great, if you think the way you structured these deals is defensible, then show your work.”
The government does not want to show their work. We favour transparency; they don't. The amendment the former Kathleen Wynne finance minister from Ontario has proposed is about trying to bury this information. It talks about hiding documents, no notes being able to be taken, copies of documents being destroyed. That's the Liberal approach. They want to bury this issue. They want us to believe they're proud of their work, but they do not want the public to see their work. We think that's dead wrong. We believe in transparency. We don't want to let these corrupt Liberals hide the nature of the deal they've made, we believe the public should get to see it.
Mr. Chair, you know our position. You know their position. We're ready for a vote.