Mr. Speaker, in this week's Hill Times is a list of the 67 Conservative candidates who participated in this in and out scheme. I do not know the answer but I note that not one of the candidates who participated in the scheme comes from the province of Alberta, though there are participants from all the other nine provinces. It is kind of an interesting observation. I am not exactly sure why but maybe there is a reason.
The fundamental of this is that something has happened that has created a difference. An advertisement could have been purchased directly by the national campaign of any party and that would not qualify for any additional money because parties already get their annual allotments and are subject to a limit of $18.3 million for national advertising.
By virtue of the fact that the Conservatives transferred cash in and out, which amounted to $1,375,000, that created the big rebate difference. The rebates for those candidates were increased by $770,000.
The bottom line is that there are two issues. The first is that there was $1.3 million of overspending in the limit on the national campaign advertising, which is a fairness issue, a democracy issue.
The second has to do with the rebates and the fact that Canadians had to pay an additional $770,000 just because the Conservatives used a particular scheme to get around the rules of the Elections Act.
Since the government has explained, according to it, that there is nothing here that is illegal and that everybody does it, why is it that the government has been filibustering the procedure and House affairs committee and refusing to allow it to get these facts on the table? What is it hiding?