I agree with Mr. Drouin, who's saying don't measure the windows for curtains before the election happens, but I can safely state that Edmonton Centre will not be returning Mr. Boissonnault to the House of Commons.
I'm sorry, Randy, if you're watching. There's guessing, there's hoping and then there's reality. That's just the reality, I'm afraid.
What ended up happening was that the Liberal House leader ended up coming in with the fall economic statement, dropping it and then fleeing. We didn't get an attempt to address the fall economic statement.
Getting back to the public accounts, I accept some of Ms. Boudreau's comments, but we have seen a massive increase in the number of public servants. Surely there is a transition plan for the comptroller general's office. Mr. Huppé left, but there are lots of people in the department who are very competent who could have certainly achieved this in time.
Why I have great lack of faith in some of the explanations is that this is the same government, the same department, that famously, a couple of years ago, reopened the public accounts after they'd already been signed off on in order to stuff money back in to show perhaps a better reason.... I think two or three years ago, we ATIPed the information on that. We're still waiting. Some of my ATIPs will actually be eligible for a pension before NDP leader Jagmeet Singh will get his pension. Maybe that's when the government will actually release them.
We have an administration in government that has, for the first time since Confederation, reopened the public accounts, stuffed money into the previous year and closed the accounts. This year, they have been the latest ever, and we have heard some of the reasons why, like the $16 billion more being put in for contingent liabilities. I accept that the $16 billion is fully legit, but I have to wonder why, when the budget came out at the beginning of the new fiscal year, this money wasn't in there. What happened in the short period between then and now, where all of a sudden there's $16 billion?
That was a question I was asking, because the wording is very specifically about items that are “assessed as likely to result”. Basically, what happens with contingent liabilities—lawsuits or other obligations—is that when they mature, they result in a settlement, and that's when they get put on the books.
What happened between the budget coming out and very recently, when they delayed the public accounts to put that in? I would like to ask the witnesses here, but, of course, the Liberals are blocking our ability to ask those questions.