There were some remonstrations I heard there about something that happened 15 years ago. Parties in the House, including not just the NDP, who just spoke, but also the Liberals, have tried this as well: “We voted for that legislation under Stephen Harper, but it's all his fault because he told us we had to.”
I mean, come on. I'm a parliamentarian with a spine. If you were in the House at that point in time and somebody said, “Don't do your job, just do what we say,” I would say that you're not doing your job as a parliamentarian. I can't speak directly to what happened 15 years ago because I wasn't here, but I will say that making excuses for your own behaviour and the decisions that you've had to make.... Every decision that we make in Parliament requires considering both sides, the pros and the cons, of what we're trying to accomplish in that. If you try and undo half of that ex post facto, you are pretending that there was never both a pro and a con to the argument.
Moving things quickly as far as getting more Canadians the citizenship they're due is a job we all have to undertake here. We'd like to undertake that with a bill that would be brought forth here, as well, to make sure we have a robust immigration system, but we're talking about this subamendment right now, which is about including the tactic brought forward by my colleague from the NDP to try and bypass Parliament and bring this bill directly to this committee for expedited delivery as opposed to having people actually address it at second reading in the House of Commons.
I find that to be an affront to Parliament. It has never been done before and, frankly, shouldn't be done. We have a process in Parliament that we use to debate bills, particularly bills that are going to have significant consequences for Canada's immigration system. The stunt being pulled with this motion, to which we have an amendment and a subamendment—two at this point in time—is entirely at the feet of the New Democratic Party. Thank you very much for trying to manipulate this Parliament today, not the Parliament of 15 years ago.
I am also accountable for making sure that I stand up to nonsense, and this motion here is nonsense and goes against the democratic principles we stand for in this country and abide by, which we want to make sure the Liberal-NDP coalition doesn't continue to try and whittle away as we try to uphold democracy across this country.
This subamendment to the amendment to the motion that my colleague brought forward is the number one issue on the minds of Canadians across Canada right now. If you want to talk about listening to constituents and listening to what Canadians are saying, the most important issue right now in Canada is the fact that they have lost faith in this government's words about the carbon tax.
I'm going to say this very clearly here. It's because members of the government, members on the other side here, who are not really responsible because I know they're just reading off their pages, and the government itself—the Prime Minister and each of his ministers—stand up in the House of Commons and address Canadians and say nonsense like, “This bill puts more money in your pocket than it takes out. We just take that money out of your pocket, take it into Ottawa, give it to our bureaucrats to shuffle around and then we add a little bit of salt and pepper to it and put it back in your pocket.”
That's garbage. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has said that's garbage, yet the Prime Minister and his band of merry men and women continue on that completely false narrative. Let's call it what it is. It has been called many things, Mr. Chair, but let's call it what it is. It's dishonest. There is no government money that doesn't come from the taxpayers. Not one cent you are putting in the pockets of Canadians didn't come from the pockets of Canadians. Public finance is public finance, and drifting into a $50-billion deficit for no reason other than the fact that you want to continue to grease your friends is no way to run a democratic government in Canada.
I think we need to continue to hold this government to account. I heard someone say here, in addressing the subamendment, that Conservatives spend too much time at committee examining legislation. What do you think our job is? I'll tell you that I've only been at this committee one year, but I have yet to examine legislation at this committee, because it's been filibustered so much by the Liberals, by not bringing forward legislation, both in camera and in public, trying—