Thank you, Chair.
I often strive, particularly in this case, to get unanimous consent for the work we do. I think that's your goal too, Mr. Chair.
We often, in the discussion of the production of documents, come to this discussion of how many documents and when. I support this motion in its original language. I also support the proposed amendments by Mrs. Shanahan, if that means they'll be voting in favour of the motion.
I think it is reasonable, especially for the committee that's investigating something as serious as this, to attempt to find consensus with respect to what often plagues our entire country. Both governments, Conservatives and Liberals, have had massive scandals for a very long time on very similar issues. New Democrats have been consistent in our approach in wanting to fix this in an earnest way. If we have support from the government, the governing members, to investigate this conduct, and if there's earnest will by the Conservatives not to make cheap political points out of this, I think we could actually get to a position where these recommendations could be valid. They could come to a point where we might agree on recommendations to finally end this hundred years of insiders benefiting.
Those are just my thoughts , Chair, because it's not as though these scandals didn't exist before. We've seen many scandals in the previous governments under the Conservatives, and we have seen many scandals under this current government.
The concern is that this is obviously ongoing. I don't want to see this happen to our public purse anymore. I don't want to see the public service continually rammed to the ground while insiders and lobbyists continuously get access.
If there's actually earnest support to get the unanimous consent of all parties here today to actually properly investigate this issue and it comes to a point where there are recommendations to end this decades-long fiasco....
We heard about Dalian, a donor to the Conservative Party. This goes on for both sides.
If we're really serious about this work—and I really do mean that in a genuine offer—we could come to a point of being unanimous on this investigation and actually end it.
Those are my thoughts.