Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I remember very well the discussion we had about the RCMP. In my opinion, we wanted them to testify for educational purposes.
However, Mr. Chair, there's another subject that bothers me a lot. I think this subject is important for the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
It came to light today that members of Parliament declared expenses to go to a partisan convention, saying it was some sort of caucus meeting, but without providing any details or transparency about the nature of their expenses.
Every MP's office is paid for and supported by taxpayers' dollars. You know that very well, Chair, having yourself served as an advocate for Canadian taxpayers with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
We learned today that it was the Conservative Party of Canada that was the largest user of taxpayer funds, subsidizing the travel expenses of their MPs, family members and staff to effectively attend a Conservative Party convention in Quebec City. It's very disappointing to learn this, especially when the Conservatives pride themselves on being guardians of the public purse, yet we see this flagrant misuse of parliamentary funds.
We don't have to go very far. It's very apropos that we've been discussing media and media coverage of different issues, Mr. Chair, and rightly so. The public accounts committee needs to be concerned with the use of taxpayer funds. Conservative MPs have racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses to bring their spouses and staff to political events. That is something that needs... We're not talking about just a few dollars here; we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Mr. Chair, I believe you were a member of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, or a director or something. It's something that I know you're very proud of and that you have made reference to in your career. The Taxpayers Federation has called for the money billed to the House of Commons, through what is effectively a loophole, to be reimbursed in whole or in part. It stated that “Taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing politicians—”