Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have a few things that I want to add.
In Saint John, New Brunswick, in September 2022, Mr. Sorbara spent $2,330.62. As well, in Whitehorse, Mrs. Shanahan spent, I believe, in excess of $5,000.
I also want to raise something else here, Mr. Chair. I think it's important. The Liberal party's caucus retreat in New Brunswick in 2022 cost taxpayers $428,000 and change. Some of it was billed to the House of Commons, and some expenses for staffers in ministers' offices and the Prime Minister's office were billed to those offices. Also, the figures included $43,292 in expenses for MPs' designated travellers.
I also want to mention the Prime Minister's trip to, I believe, Montana. Before they added the RCMP costs and the police detail that would travel with the Prime Minister, I believe it exceeded $400,000. It could have been half a million dollars, but in my mind it's at least $400,000.
I think that if we're going to throw stones, we should understand what we've done ourselves. Listen, we've been dealing with a billion-dollar slush fund and a $60-some-million ArriveCAN scandal. One contractor got $20 million. I think it's quite rich that the Liberal party could spend that much in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, I believe, which is a very beautiful part of New Brunswick. However, that's $400,000. Considering that a weekend national caucus meeting is being discussed here before the committee, I think it's very interesting that the Liberals would actually go this route, judging from their own record. That is perhaps the strangest aspect of this meeting here today.
The Liberals' record on spending on hotel costs and what's being billed to the taxpayer has been, on occasion, so alarming that it's spent numerous days on the front page. I think all of Canada has been quite perplexed by the idea of a $90,000 Jamaican vacation, a half-million-dollar Montana vacation and a $400,000 caucus retreat in New Brunswick, Canada, in my backyard or close to it, in St. Andrews.
I think the Liberal record is shocking on so many levels. As a member of this committee, I'm kind of perplexed that we're even having this discussion. I mean, any member of this committee from any party has the right to move a motion, and I don't mean to be disrespectful to that part, because it is the right of a member. I'm just shocked that the Liberal Party's direction would go there, of all places, because its own record has been so abysmal. We've just seen it so often that I....
You know, Mr. Chair, I think it would be fair to say that taxpayers in general have a legitimate fatigue with this sort of discussion, and I don't think that they expect anything different from the governing party, the Liberal Party of Canada, so I think that maybe this motion today is some sort of attempt to change the channel on perhaps one of their very own worst attributes as a party.
Let's look at these figures again. Let's just think about them. Obviously, I respect Mr. Sorbara. He's definitely a good guy. I've met him a few times. However, here's a guy who has a $2,330 charge in New Brunswick, and some of the charges we're dealing with today are $1,000 less than that. I find that very strange.