Evidence of meeting #144 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was point.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
—Navdeep Bains, who refused to answer any questions.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
For some reason, the Liberals want to protect him. Why do they want to protect him? They want to protect him because he's responsible for this corruption.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Mr. Chair, I'm not sure why you're not recognizing my point of order.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Mr. Perkins, think of the interpreters.
Ms. Khalid, what is your point of order?
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Oh, well, if that's the standard, we're all in trouble.
Mercifully, the resources are eclipsed.
I'm going to suspend this meeting.
[The meeting was suspended at 9:52 p.m., Wednesday, October 9]
[The meeting resumed at 11:08 a.m., Thursday, October 10]
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
I call the meeting back to order.
We're now resuming debate.
We're going to turn to Mr. Perkins in a second, which is where we left things last night. Then I have Mr. Erskine-Smith, Mr. Drouin and Ms. Khalid, and of course I'll look for hands.
Mr. Perkins, you have the floor.
Remember, we are debating Mr. Perkins' motion and members need to speak to its relevance. Repetition will be noted and you'll be asked to get back to relevance. Of course there is no reading.
Mr. Perkins, you have the floor.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Just as a quick reminder, it's nice to see everyone again. I hope you got a good night's sleep. I missed you as well.
We're here, as the chair said, debating a motion I moved—for those who have just tuned in—on privilege. What this means is that we had a witness here, the former Liberal minister in charge of the Liberal green slush fund, Navdeep Bains, who basically gave one answer to every question no matter what the question was last night. As a result he was stonewalling, prevaricating—that fun word—and not answering questions anywhere near the vicinity of what was asked. It didn't matter what the question was, the answer was the same, and the answer was that it was a fair and open process of appointments. It didn't matter whether it was coming from Conservatives, the Bloc or the NDP, his answer was the same, regardless of the question.
He didn't answer about the hiring practices of a former SDTC staff at CIBC, where he worked. He didn't answer the questions about the phone calls that he made to the chair of the green slush fund, Annette Verschuren, whom he appointed. He didn't answer the questions about anything to do with that appointment process or the appointment process through which he appointed, Andrée-Lise Méthot, from Cycle Capital, whose companies received 25% of the billion-dollar green slush fund money and received over $100 million while she was on the board. He didn't remember any of that. In fact, he couldn't even remember appointing anyone. He just said, I made 100 appointments.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I have a point of order, a point of clarification.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
There is no such thing as a point of clarification.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
I heard “point of order” first, so go ahead, Mr. Erskine-Smith.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Perhaps just as a point of clarification, I'm a bit confused....
On the one hand, Mr. Perkins has said that he didn't answer questions but on the other hand he—
Conservative
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I'm confused. He says he didn't answer the questions, and then he says he didn't recall and answered the questions. Which is it? He said he didn't recall—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Mr. Erskine-Smith, you're next on the list. You'll be able to—
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
You're wasting our time. Rick, get your story straight.
Conservative
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
—that MP Erskine-Smith is confused. He is confused on just about every single issue he has ever spoken on.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Mr. Perkins, you'll have the floor in a second.
First of all, I am going to ask everyone to respect the interpreters. Speaking over one another not only makes it very difficult for them to do their job, it can actually be potentially damaging. I am going to urge you all to respect the team that is supporting us in our important work.
Mr. Drouin, you have a point of order, I believe.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
It was on the interpreters, because everybody was talking over....
