Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this motion.
It's interesting. There seems to be such a huge lack of concern by this NDP-Liberal government about $150 million. It's just shocking that they think $150 million is chump change. The average Canadian out there—and I'd say even more than the average Canadian—sits and talks about nickels and dimes. My wife and I have talked about nickels and dimes for years. Continually, we talk around the household, and when we look at families, they talk about where those nickels and dimes are going to come from. They add up. You continually add them up.
Here, we have a government that turns around.... It used to talk about thousands of dollars. It now considers thousands of dollars to be nickels. Now it's talking about millions of dollars and it still thinks they're just dimes. We're talking about $150 million out there that has been wasted and not accounted for by this government. That's shocking, when we have Canadians who are suffering and struggling to make ends meet and get by day after day, with the huge inflationary costs this government keeps causing with its economic strategy. It just drives up cost after cost. Here we have $150 million that could go a tremendous way toward helping Canadians.
Take a look at Coronach, Saskatchewan, where this government has been trying to end the use of coal energy and shut down a community. This $150 million in that community would help tremendously in assisting these people and getting them out of this mess that they're in because of what this government is doing, yet the government just turns around and thinks $150 million is nothing. It's shocking that the government can actually think that way.
You take that $150 million and then add to it the $172 million in infrastructure for a company that.... I get it. During COVID, when we were on the health committee, everything was moving quickly at the very start and things had to be done. At the same time, there had to be some accountability for where that money was going. Somebody had to be accountable for signing those contracts and allowing those contracts to go through.
When we're talking about this government, where there are policies that turn around and dictate what those levels are, they don't get signed off with just a simple, “Here it is. Just go ahead and do it.” Someone has to look at them. It's not just the minister who has to sign off on something over $100 million. There are deputy ministers. There are assistant deputy ministers. They all have to look at them.
We're not talking about one agency. We're talking not only about Public Works; we're talking about other areas we need to look at that are signing off on health, etc. There are probably at least three, and all three of those levels had to look at this and say, “Hmm. We're going to sign off on this without any recognition of what the endgame is if it doesn't transpire.”
This motion is asking for these people to come and account for this to Canadians, so that the Canadian public has a true understanding of where that money was spent and whether or not it was spent wisely and appropriately.
When we're signing for something, I don't know anybody in this room who would agree to have something purchased and not make certain that they received the product, or, if they weren't going to receive the product, that they were going to get their money back.
My wife and I are looking at a new kitchen. When I say “new kitchen”, I mean a household kitchen, not—