Mr. Speaker, I found my colleague's dissertation on this bill before us fascinating and full of very concrete information.
In her former life she was on the Toronto city council, so she brings a certain area of expertise. She might have been here when I was talking about the very mysterious Vito Gallo who is putting a hit for $350 million in the pocket of the Canadian taxpayer right now through chapter 11 dispute mechanisms. I want to ask my colleague because she followed the Adams Mine and she was at the committee hearings and meetings that went on year after year.
The member should correct me if my memory is mistaken, but was it not the people of Toronto who paid out of their homeowner tax rates for all the consultants and all the studies, not this Vito G. Gallo? Was it not the people of Toronto who paid for the drill studies, who paid basically to get that scheme up and running in the first place? Were the taxpayers of Toronto not the same people who are being hit upon by this guy who says he is being robbed of his investment? I would like to ask the member, first of all, was it not the people of Toronto who paid for everything that this Mr. Gallo is claiming?
Second, I am trying to get a sense of who Vito G. Gallo is. In fact, if the people back home know who Vito is, they should call my office. If they can help us save the Canadian taxpayer $350 million, I will at least give the people back home a T-shirt, something that reads, “I saved our system $350 million”, money that could go into culture, money that could go into health care, money that could go into international development.
In all the years, in all the meetings, in all the hearings that we had on Adams Mine has the member heard the name Vito G. Gallo ever mentioned once in any single meeting? Did this Mr. Gallo ever come out from that mysterious place where he is hiding and say, “I am the owner of this mine”? Right now he does not have to. He can go to an international dispute mechanism and say, “Give me all the money. I own everything. I am not disclosing anything because I hide behind an Ontario numbered company and the citizens of Toronto will pay for that”. The citizens of Canada who are being hit for this $350 million right now have no ability through this dispute mechanism to challenge Vito G. Gallo, whoever he is, wherever he is--