Madam Speaker, I cannot know what the Minister of Finance is thinking, but I do know that he refuses to be accountable or accept that he is accountable to Canadians and that he is currently in an absolutely untenable situation.
When the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner gave him permission to move forward, it was not exactly permission to move forward. It was more a way of telling the minister what he could not do. He decided to use a loophole to move forward without giving up his holdings. That is a problem.
The government boasts about being transparent and accountable to Canadians, but then turns around and uses all sorts of tricks to get out of being accountable. I would wait all day for an answer to the following question:
How are the Minister of Finance's actions no less serious than the awarding of a contract 15 years ago to a company that belonged to a minister's ex-girlfriend or the awarding of a contract to a college that belonged to the solicitor general's brother? Instead of the answering the question, the government seems to want to change the channel.
I hope that the government will understand the meaning of the word “accountability” sometime soon.