There's been a lot of discussion since I introduced the original motion. I'll just briefly say, without repeating everything that's been said by my colleagues, that the lack of urgency on this large corruption scandal is appalling to me.
Every time there's a report, whether it's the investigations by various parliamentary committees, whether it's new documents produced by the whistle-blowers or whether it's the then new testimony from the former president of SDTC, who declared a number of shocking things about the way the board operated.... Then we had the incredible Auditor General's report finding of almost $400 million misappropriated. Every time there's an investigation, now from the Ethics Commissioner, we uncover a deeper and deeper and deeper level of conflict of interest self-dealing and, frankly, feathering their own nests for their financial interest in the nine Liberal directors appointed by the Liberals that were outlined in the Auditor General's report.
The minister, who cares so much about this, unfroze the funds. The fund, the slush fund, is now open again. The only difference is that they've moved the slush fund to another group headed by a bunch of former retired bureaucrats, which, in their testimony before this committee, or before another committee, gave zero confidence that they had any ability or idea of how to stop this corruption that's gone on, or that there will be any new processes.
There should not be any spending in this fund going on right now. It shouldn't be happening until all of these reports are delved into and we have more shocking testimony. We need to get on this, because what's happening is that as the Liberals, the Bloc and the NDP don't want to bother doing this for another month and a half to two months, the money of taxpayers is going out the door to these same companies, in all likelihood, in stage three, stage four or whatever. Former Liberal directors now are still benefiting from their insider job of being on this committee.
I know that everybody has lots of other things to do. We all do. But I don't think there's anything more important than dealing with the fact that this is 10 times the size of the sponsorship scandal during the Chrétien Liberal government. That was $42 million. This is almost $400 million so far on every investigation, and every time there is a report the number grows.
It's shocking to me that members of Parliament in this committee think that this isn't of the greatest urgency to delve into now with the Ethics Commissioner and that we can wait until the House comes back in September and maybe spare a single meeting. We'll spare a single meeting when $400 million and growing of taxpayer money has gone to conflicts of interest and has been spent illegally, according to the Auditor General, outside the terms granted to the green slush fund. There isn't a sense of urgency in people here to stop this, fix it and get to the bottom of it. They want to wait until the middle of September to give one whole meeting to it.
Come on, guys. This is why we opposed the amendments to the meetings. It was because of our desire as Conservatives. Why are we having an emergency meeting today? We're having an emergency meeting today because we put forward a request to have these urgent meetings. It was because of the Ethics Commissioner's report that came out last week. I thought the Bloc and the NDP thought it was also urgent, because they co-signed the letter, but now, apparently, they come to the meeting and it's not urgent: It can wait.
I would urge members to reconsider their change of heart, that's happened in this meeting, that supports the Liberals in their hiding and covering up the corruption in the green slush fund, because that's what it is. More delay is more cover-up. If you vote for this amendment, in my view you're voting to continue the Liberal cover-up in the green slush fund.