Mr. Speaker, I do not know where to start. I hesitate because the language I would like to use might be unparliamentary, and I cannot use all the words that come to mind. I hope the members opposite will understand that many of the words I would like to utter will remain unsaid out of respect for the Chair, who would judge these words to be unparliamentary.
I will use a very simple language. A billion is a long string of zeros with a one in front of them. It is a thousand million dollars that were squandered, handed out to friends and supporters, particularly those who contribute to the liberal election fund.
We know that there are 1.5 million children living in poverty in this country. If we took $1 billion and divided it by 1.5 million, every child in Canada could have received $6,666 in support. But that was not done.
Instead, next year, it will be reported that once again the number of children living in poverty, and parents living in poverty of course, has grown. I know that, in my riding of Matapédia—Matane, where unemployment is very high, from time to time someone makes a mistake and claims one week too many in benefits and there are penalties for doing so. They come and get them and they are almost prepared to send them to jail.
About the $1 billion that disappeared and went into the pockets of some rich people, I ask my colleague, whom I listened to intently, how he would qualify this scandal.