Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to move a motion:
That, given recent reports that the National Capital Commission (NCC) paid over $8 million to replace a barn at Rideau Hall, the committee:
(a) undertake a study of one meeting on this imprudent spending and invite the NCC and Treasury Board officials to testify on the matter; and
(b) report to the House that the committee recognize that this is an egregious waste of taxpayer money especially considering the cost of living crisis Canadians are facing.
I want to draw attention to when Minister Anand, the new Treasury Board minister, was placed in the role and said, “There is not one policy of our government that doesn't go through Treasury Board. I will be seeing everything from a policy perspective”. I think the minister made it very clear that everything goes through the Treasury Board.
In thinking about this issue, Mr. Chair.... We recently learned that the National Capital Commission paid over $8 million to replace a barn on the grounds of Rideau Hall. The list of ridiculous spending keeps growing. There are hundreds of millions for sole-sourced contracts to consultants like McKinsey, $56 million for the useless ArriveCAN app, and $6,000 for hotel rooms. The list goes on.
Canadians are struggling. Our food banks are seeing record usage. The cost of food has gone up 23%. After eight years of NDP-Liberal mismanagement, the dream of home ownership is simply out of reach for most Canadians. Mortgage costs are up 40%. As well, Mr. Chair, the cost of rent has doubled.
I also want to mention that the Auditor General wrote a report on this very issue in 2008. It was called “Conservation of Federal Official Residences”. The AG's findings were that over a 10-year period, from 1997 to 2007, the expenditure on upkeep and repairs at Rideau Hall, 24 Sussex and Harrington Lake was approximately $37 million. As those around this table know, this committee's mandate allows us to study matters that have been reviewed by the AG in recent years. This motion would fall under our mandate. I also believe it is our obligation to ensure that taxpayer dollars are wisely spent. This includes reviewing who at NCC and Treasury Board approved $8 million for a barn at Rideau Hall.
Now, Mr. Chair, when you consider $8 million for a barn.... In my riding of Miramichi—Grand Lake—as an example of why this amount of money is egregious—we had a $1.5-million request to the federal government to replace navigational aids on a port system we've had for well over 150 years. We had a $5-million request to the federal government on a $120-million pilot project that would have employed 80 people full time for probably a 25-year period. Both projects were denied by the federal government and Minister LeBlanc. He's from New Brunswick, nonetheless. You can see how spending $8 million on a barn would upset the people in my constituency, where $6.5 million would have allowed them to ship their goods from the port. Because of the cost of gasoline and the carbon tax, that would have been better for the constituency. At the same time, having a new mill would have made all the difference.
The $8 million is an egregious waste of taxpayers' dollars. That's why I move the motion.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
