Public Accounts Committee on Sept. 3rd, 2024

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'll just address the concern of the member.

Specifically with respect to the Minister of Environment, I'm proposing to remove him because he has no responsibility in SDTC. He has nothing to do with the file. It would be a waste of our committee resources for us to have him. We've already had Minister Champagne, the person who is responsible for the file, and I'm sure Minister Champagne is willing to come again. It just doesn't make sense for us to include a minister who has no authority over this file that we're talking about.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Right, and you would like to present this.... Your amendment to the motion is to remove “(iv) Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change”, and then add the Auditor General and the commissioner of the RCMP. That is the amendment.

Madame Sinclair-Desgagné wants to speak on it first, I believe, and then after that I see Mr. Perkins.

I do have a list running on the side, which is Mr. Desjarlais, Mr. Brock and Mr. Genuis—

[An hon. member]

I'd like to get back on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

—so I'm going to keep that.

Gentlemen, if you can put your hands down.... Keep your hands up if you want to be on the list for this amendment to the motion.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

I would like to be on both. [Technical difficulty—Editor] right at the beginning regarding the amendment issue. Wherever I fit on the list is fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Mr. Desjarlais, would you like to speak to the amendment to the motion as well?

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Yes, I would like to speak to the amendment.

Just as a matter of reply—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I'm just confirming. I'll come back to you.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Oh, of course. I apologize.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Madame Sinclair-Desgagné, you have the floor first.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank my colleague for introducing this motion. It looks good to me. There are definitely some names I would like to see on that list.

If everyone is in agreement, I would like to propose a subamendment, a friendly amendment, to Ms. Khalid's amendment.

The Auditor General gave us a list of the 90 unresolved cases of conflict of interest in which procedures weren't followed, as well as the names of the individuals in conflict of interest. I would like to see all of those names on the list. We already have those of Ms. Verschuren and Ms. Andrée‑Lise Méthot, but I would like to add several others.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Okay. I'll pass those suggestions on.

Right now, we're just going to discuss Ms. Khalid's three suggestions to see if you want to support them or if you want us to remove one of those three names. That's what we're talking about.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Okay. I can speak—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

We're just talking about these three names.

The floor is yours.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Okay.

I agree with the names being added, and I also agree that we are probably not going to learn anything particularly relevant by inviting Mr. Guilbeault. So I agree with Ms. Khalid's amendments.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

You agree with the amendments. That's great.

Thank you very much.

We'll continue with Mr. Perkins.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Can you put me back on the list for my subamendments?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

No. We'll deal with this matter, and then after that—

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

I'm on the list, though.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

You're on the list, yes.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Mr. Perkins, go ahead.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

On the amendment, there seems to be a little confusion because Minister Champagne's name was mentioned. We still have an existing study motion. This is a supplement to it.

The existing study motion has François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Industry, and Simon Kennedy, the deputy minister. It has Francis Bilodeau, the ADM at Innovation, Science and Technology. It has Paul Boothe, the current acting chair. The other ones are in addition to those on my motion. It has Ziyad Rahme, who is, as you know, the acting president. These are already on that. There are some people from PCO as well.

This list is in addition to, not as a substitution for, that previous motion on the existing study. I have no issues with the amendment, but I'd like to see it just to make sure I understand what it is.

However, just by way of explanation on Minister Guilbeault, he indeed does have quite a bit to do with this, because before he was elected, he was the in-house lobbyist for 10 years and is the primary beneficiary of the green slush fund. Also, in his public declarations on his conflict of interest, he lists still being a shareholder in Cycle Capital. He did not divest himself from the primary beneficiary of the Liberal green slush fund when he became a minister, and since he's become a minister, the value of Cycle Capital has tripled with the amount of money that's been going into it.

That's the rationale for it. Obviously, I would prefer to have him, but if the committee doesn't feel that way, I guess we'll see that in the amendment.

I probably can't ask a question, but I just want a clarification. The suggestion is to add the RCMP in before it says “Auditor General”. Is that correct?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

It is to strike “Guilbeault”, and then there'll be a new number.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Oh, you mean as additional witnesses.