Thank you, Chair.
Before I was interrupted by points of order from the Liberals, I was articulating that Ms. Shanahan, as national caucus chair, did expend significant amounts of money to attend caucus meetings.
I would note further that the Members By-Law, which is a matter that falls under BOIE, the Board of Internal Economy, would be responsible for this. I see Ms. Shanahan wants to distract from the government's disastrous arrive scam ineptitude, where an app that should have cost a few hundred thousand dollars ballooned to $60 million of taxpayer dollars and an RCMP investigation. I can see why she wants to distract from that.
The fact is that the board rules that the members' bylaws permit members to attend national caucus meetings, which are typically all-day events held at different points in time. We call them caucus retreats or caucus meetings, but they are caucus matters. As some colleagues may or may not know, in a past life I have been working on a long-delayed Ph.D. dissertation on caucus meetings, so I do have some familiarity with caucus meetings from all parties, frankly, from a number of decades gone by.
I would point out, first of all, that this is a matter that is there. Members attend caucus meetings. That's part of our parliamentary functions. Frankly, if we look at past Speakers' rulings, we've actually seen various Speakers, including Mr. Speaker Regan, a Liberal Speaker—not that it matters—ruling on occasion, two Parliaments ago, that caucus meetings do indeed constitute a part of parliamentary functions. All of a sudden the Liberals think that we're going to have some kind of investigation into the meetings of caucuses. It seems rather interesting and, again, comical, given the timing, that they want to do this.
Obviously, there are caucus meetings held at various points in time. I know the Liberals enjoyed a wonderful caucus meeting in St. Andrews by-the-Sea. Perhaps Mr. Stewart can tell us about that lovely location, but they do happen at various locations in the country. When matters happen, we follow the members' procedural bylaws that provide clarity and certainty. Expenses that are eligible are one thing, and expenses that aren't eligible aren't permitted. The bylaw clearly states that national caucus meetings and regional caucus meetings are permitted, as we know from Ms. Shanahan's own expense claims about her attendance at various matters.
I really don't know what this is, especially since this is not an issue for public accounts. This is a Board of Internal Economy issue. However, once again, what we're seeing here is a Liberal attempt to cover up the malfeasance that we've seen with ArriveCAN. At every meeting we've seen in these last few weeks, every time we see new allegations, whether it's from Erin O'Gorman as the current president of the CBSA or John Ossowski as the former president, we see a flagrant disregard for taxpayer funds—a complete disregard.