Thank you, Chair.
Since all of us were brought here and have interrupted our busy schedules to be here, I think we should all be allowed to say what we came to say.
I think that clearly what we have here is a political stunt that the NDP is trying to pull off. As a member of the finance committee, I'll say that we saw a similar MO during the summer, when they tried to bring us back and in fact succeeded in doing so.
If the NDP is so concerned about money and directing it towards the right causes in this country, particularly in this instance of health care, they should know that it must have cost about $50,000 to bring all the members back from all points around the country and to get the interpreters together for today's meeting. This could have waited until sometime next week, when we would all be back. The NDP members were already here for their party seminar, so this clearly is just an opportunity for them to grab headlines. It's an opportunity for them to get in their cheap political shots, which I think is completely uncalled for.
It's interesting to note also that issues of costing and financing of programs are handled by the finance committee. When something involving transfer payments or social transfers or any transfer of money is brought forward, it has to do with the finance committee, so I don't understand why this is even being brought forward at the health committee. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me.
If you check the mandate.... I'm new to Parliament. I just got elected in May, but the first thing I did was read the mandate of the committees that I was sitting on to find out what's within our purview. When I was asked to be here today at the health committee, I read the mandate of the health committee, and clearly this is a matter of finance. The finance committee should be handling this, so I'm really at odds and really confused as to why the NDP is doing this. Maybe they couldn't get enough of their own finance committee members together to sign the letter, but it's quite bizarre.
Having said all of that, I know that a number of us were pulled away from important business in our ridings. I was planning this afternoon to volunteer at a food bank in downtown Toronto. My riding is in northern Toronto, but I was asked to go to an NDP riding in downtown Toronto to volunteer at a food bank. I couldn't do that this afternoon because I was asked to come here to debate a completely egregious and nonsensical motion put forward by the NDP that clearly could have waited until next week. In my opinion, this is clearly a waste of money, a waste of time, and a waste of resources.
The people of Canada sent us here to work for them on their behalf. The Canadian people want to see us working for them. Being here and wasting time on a clearly nonsensical NDP motion, a motion that could have waited, is completely egregious and completely nonsensical. I just cannot support something like this. It's an outrage.