Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the hon. member opposite. He raised a number of very penetrating and relevant questions. I share his frustration. The House can imagine the degree of frustration that we must feel, if a member of the governing party is unable to get important information. He is quoted in The Hill Times as saying, “Where's $12 billion?”. That is a very relevant question.
The member speaks of the need for trust and the need to renew faith of Canadians in the system. That is a wonderful sentiment as well. Yet on something as basic as how the finance minister and the Prime Minister came to part company, we cannot get a straight answer, whether he was fired or whether he quit, something as basic as that.
That is relevant because it sets the tone for basic honesty and basic disclosure of information and the government is not able to communicate something in a straightforward way.
With respect to the allegations, corruption and the ongoing concern about where the money is spent and how it is being spent, why would the member not support a full public inquiry with a mandate to go where the money is and where the trouble is with allegations that involve poor documentation as pointed out by the auditor general? I know the hon. member opposite is a very strident member when it comes to documentation and when it comes to backing up a claim and giving factual information. The auditor general talked about oral contracts being handed out. She pointed out specifically that some of these so-called arm's length quasi-crown corporations were not under her gamut or her ability to observe and to investigate.
Therefore, it reiterates the point of a full public inquiry with a mandate to go where the potential criminality might lie to find out if ministers were in fact making improper interference in files. The member is right. It is not fair to smear all departments and all bureaucrats, but there is evidence to which the auditor general has pointed. Why would the member not support a full public inquiry?