Public Accounts Committee on Oct. 9th, 2024

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you, Mr. Brock.

Mr. Drouin, you have the floor. I'll ask you to remain relevant and to come up with new ideas. It's over to you, please.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Once again, I sense my colleagues don't like when we lay out all the facts revealed in committee.

I see that my dear colleague Mr. McCauley has come to provide backup. I welcome him to committee. There are now seven Conservative Party members here. It takes a lot of Conservative members to fight the Liberals, but that's okay. We welcome it.

How was the interpretation, Mr. McCauley? Was it spot on?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It's coming through as nonsense.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Here is how the nonsense goes. How many meetings are we going to hold on the subject? So far, we've held more than eight. The Standing Committee on Industry and Technology has also met several times. The MPs who asked questions there in June are here today, asking the same questions. They never raised a question of privilege about what Mr. Bains said. Suddenly, they no longer like the answers, and they're wondering whether Mr. Bains was telling the truth or not.

Frankly, Mr. Chair, I'm being treated like a fool, and I won't have it.

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

That's unparliamentary.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I was referring to myself.

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

It's still unparliamentary.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Once again, I was referring to myself.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

If you insist.... You have the floor.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I didn't treat any of you. I treated myself.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

If you insist, Mr. Drouin.

You have the floor.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

The fact is that we're questioning whether or not Mr. Bains' testimony to questions the opposition was asking was satisfactory. He perhaps didn't know the answers. I would love to question everybody in testimony on what happened eight years ago. I'm sorry, but that is not a question of privilege.

Time and time again, we have heard in different testimony that ministers or ministers' offices were not involved in the day-to-day operations of SDTC. We have heard it time and time again, and they're still not believing that.

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible—Editor]

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

Go home if you're so tired.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Here's my question: How long are we going to go around in circles? Not a single member of the opposition has taught me anything new in the last five meetings.

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

On a point of order, this is repetition.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Chair, when we return—

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

It's repetition.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

It was a quick line.

Mr. Drouin, you have the floor

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Is “I” repetition or is “the opposition” repetition? You can call me out, Rick; you're giving me a break anyway.

More seriously, when we're questioning whether or not a witness, who has already appeared and been questioned by the same member at a previous committee in June.... Whether that's a question of privilege has absolutely nothing to do with SDTC, but everything to do with what is happening in the House.

They don't want to come to work. We know they want to go into an election right away. They've all told us. They're not interested in getting to the bottom of this. Any motion of production of papers that they put forth is not serious—I haven't said that word, by the way—because they want to go into an election tomorrow morning. They probably have their campaign office already rented and their campaign signs.

I haven't said that, by the way; it's not repetition.

I'm questioning the seriousness of their actually getting to the bottom of this.

It's shameful that we're asking a member, who has already appeared and testified before committee, to come back.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Mr. Drouin, this is now getting—

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I put a new adjective in, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

You are getting repetitive.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'll conclude with this thought. I expected the Conservative Party to play political games. I did not, however, expect the party of Mr. Jagmeet Singh or the Bloc Québécois to join ranks with the Conservative Party.

I'm convinced that, in Quebec, everyone knows that these people are joining ranks with Mr. Poilievre and that they have no respect for anyone. Mr. Poilievre does not respect the values of francophones in Quebec or Canada. He doesn't want to know what happened at SDTC or what Mr. Navdeep Bains did. The only thing he's interested in is making sure to fundraise and launch more petitions to get more names for the Conservative Party database, and that's it.

I'll stop there, Mr. Chair, because I know that you're going to say that I'm repeating myself.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much.

We are going to have a five-minute health recess. Then we'll come back and Ms. Khalid will have the floor.

This meeting is suspended.