Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I absolutely want to hear what my colleague has to say, but I do have more that I would like to say on this, so I will continue.
I found the outcome of the unanimous motion that was brought forward to be interesting but also not surprising. It's quite clear, and once again today it's been made clear, that the Conservatives are not actually interested in seeing solutions to this problem. They're not actually interested in us moving forward with solutions that Canadians are asking for. The reason is that, unfortunately, much to my dismay and to the dismay of constituents in Nanaimo—Ladysmith and Canadians across the country, the Conservatives are using this as a fundraising tactic. They're using this to spread misinformation in order to divide Canadians and in order to convince Canadians that they can't have trust in the people who have been elected. I have concerns that today we've seen once again that the Conservatives want to burn the place down instead of actually see true solutions be put into place to resolve this issue.
I can say with 100% certainty that my colleagues and I did not know that this particular change would result in this. It's frustrating that we're in this position. As soon as the information was brought forward that this was a problem, as soon as that was brought to our attention, we stood up to put forward a solution. To see the Conservatives express this so-called concern over the issue and yet continue to deny this committee the ability to resolve the issue is just.... I don't know how this could possibly be explained to Canadians across the country. I just don't know.
As I have said many times now, I've been sitting in this chair for I don't know how many hours. I wish I had kept track, because I'm certain Canadians would be interested. I can find this out. We've been sitting in these chairs listening to the Conservatives ask the same question 25 different ways in order to delay us moving forward on this important work.
I've also heard the Conservatives talking about things that are completely false. It has been so challenging for me to not call a point of order every 10 seconds to correct it, but do you know what? That's exactly what the Conservatives want me to do. The second I try to call out the misinformation that's being spread, before we even leave this committee, it's clipped and posted on social media. It's spread around completely out of context in order to pad their own pockets with more fundraising efforts to show how “corrupt” all members of Parliament are. It's completely frustrating, and Canadians are paying attention.
Canadians are paying attention today to what's occurring at this committee. Canadians are paying attention to the fact that once again the Conservatives have voted to not see solutions be put into place in order to benefit MP pensions.
I have just another thought on that. It's so interesting to me that when you actually look at the breakdown of the pensions of who would benefit from the particular clause in this bill, the Conservative members of Parliament are actually those who would benefit the most from this particular clause. I don't know if I can personally believe on one side telling Canadians that this cannot be in the bill and that they're not supporting it, and yet here we are in a position where we can resolve the issue and they are not. They are not choosing to resolve this issue.
I really do question the fact that we have the majority of Conservative members of Parliament who would benefit from this remaining in this bill who are today voting against a unanimous consent motion to resolve this issue. What does that mean? Again, I would never begin to pretend that I know the intentions of Conservative members of Parliament, but I do think Canadians should pay attention to those facts. The Conservatives are refusing to resolve this issue and they are in the fact the ones who benefit the most. That's just an interesting piece of information that Canadians should be aware of.
There are many reasons why I'm pushing to see this bill move forward for Canadians.
One piece of information the Conservatives are certainly not talking about is the recommendations that came forward from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. I know that in the “unfair elections act” the voice of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada was something that they most definitely did not want to hear more of.
If members of Parliament took a moment to read these recommendations in here, they would see direct connections between the information that is in Bill C-65 and the information that was put forward and proposed by the Chief Electoral Officer, which is interesting because many of the questions the Conservatives are asking, they're asking as if these were just constructed behind closed doors with.... They're right here. They're in the actual recommendations from the Chief Electoral Officer.
A few of the recommendations that are in here relate directly to Bill C-65. I hear the member of parliament from the Conservatives who's heckling me. Perhaps I could provide him with a copy of this information if he'd like to look more closely at it. Perhaps I'm not presenting it as clearly as he would like, but it is quite clear here.