Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, members of the committee, for allowing me to join you on this interesting topic, one I'm somewhat new to.
I'm inclined to support the motion as amended. I don't think it has to do with any assertion that there's been impropriety on the part of the government in making this contribution. It's an interesting way to get to the bottom of this question of how the government decides certain contributions are necessary to attract investment, and what level of contribution is deemed necessary to keep those investments in Canada.
I think every dollar beyond the value required is a dollar wasted. It's a handout to profitable corporations that don't need public money. I think getting some insight into how the government made this particular decision, handing Mastercard $50 million, would be very useful, as mentioned by my Conservative colleague. If Mastercard is making similar investments in other jurisdictions without these kinds of handouts, this implies that those subsidies aren't required to attract that investment.
I think it's a topic worthy of inquiry. My colleague Mr. Garon raises a good point. The government makes many contributions at this level to corporations, and we can't dig into all of them, necessarily. However, let's dig into this one, because, on the surface at least, it seems like a lot of money is being giving to a credit card company. Perhaps this will provide some insight into how the government makes these kinds of decisions. Is there some sense of threshold or amount that the government is willing to invest in order to attract a few hundred jobs to Canada and $500 million in investment?
I'm inclined to support the motion, with the caveat that I take Mr. Garon's point. There isn't really a prima facie case that something improper has taken place, in terms of legal impropriety, as there are a lot of other contributions at this level. I think it would be worth getting some more insight into how the government made this decision and whether, indeed, it was necessary. Maybe Mastercard was going to set up shop in Vancouver, regardless of whether or not it got 50 million public dollars.
I'll leave it at that. I'm going to support the motion on behalf of my colleague Mr. Masse.
Thank you.