Mr. Speaker, I requested to join this particular debate because there are some troubling issues that are beginning to arise as a result of this discussion.
Before I continue, I want to say that I will be sharing my time with the great member of Parliament for Brandon—Souris.
I want to address some of the comments made by the member for Malpeque. He was part of a government that proposed bringing in an ethics commissioner. He was here for the Airbus purchase by the former Mulroney government. It is always interesting to me that when people are in positions where they have the ability to say something, they do not until it is past their turn to do something about it. Better late than never, I guess.
The issue today though is not about security. The issue is fundamentally about our country and its expectations toward the public trust. When Liberal members, or anyone in this place, tries to conflate it with 24 Sussex Drive and the insufficiency there, or Challenger jets, or whether or not ministers should fly in business class or have a government jet, it is extraneous to the conversation here today because we are talking about the public trust and the standards that the Prime Minister sets for the country.
Those members in this place who were also members of the previous Parliament would know that in 2014 the Ethics Commissioner issued an advisory warning to all members on the acceptance of gifts. Some members have quoted from that document. Here is one of them. “Members are not allowed to accept any gift or benefit that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence them. I remind you that the $200 threshold at which acceptable gifts or benefits must be publicly declared”.
Here is another one. “If the person or entity offering the gift is seeking or is likely in the future to seek your support in the exercise of a duty or function of your office, then you must refuse it. This applies to all organizations, including non-profit and charitable organizations.” Here is one more for good measure. “You are prohibited not only from accepting such gifts directly, but also indirectly.”
I remember this well. At the time that memo came out, as it happens, I received a mixed supply of vitamins from the natural supplement industry. It just came through the mail. I had no idea what the value was; however, in abundance of caution I sent them back, as I know many other members of Parliament did at the time.
Here is the thing. Back in 2014, the Prime Minister was, as we know, a member of that previous Parliament, meaning we know full well that he also received the same memo, and that memo was very clear on what constitutes and defines a gift, so the Prime Minister cannot possibly pretend he was unaware of what officially defined a conflict arising from a gift. Interestingly enough, we have not heard from the Prime Minister that he either was or was not aware of the definition of a conflict.
Instead, apparently if one claims that someone is a close personal friend, then it should be okay to receive gifts from that friend that would otherwise be declared in conflict, and more so when that friend just happens to be the head of a foundation that receives millions upon millions from Canadian taxpayers and is also registered with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada. Does that seriously make sense? These are seriously well-known facts listed on government websites and those of independent officers of Parliament.
Here is where it gets more bizarre. We find out that the Prime Minister also brought along the president of the Liberal Party of Canada and another Liberal member of Parliament on this trip.
We are told this 394-acre private island is worth in excess of $100 million. I only mention this of course to ask what the value of a private vacation of the level of opulence and extravagance as this would be. We do not know. What we do know is that it is well above the $200 threshold required for disclosure under the act. There is not even a shadow of a doubt about that. The Prime Minister, Mr. “Sunshine is the greatest disinfectant”, did not disclose any of this to the conflict commissioner. It was a secret the Prime Minister was silent on until a reporter found out.
Here we are. Why is this troubling? It is troubling because of course the law has been broken by the Prime Minister.
Therefore, the question remains, what happens because of that? Ultimately, that is the purpose of this debate today. If members of this place are found guilty of receiving a benefit they were not entitled to legally receive, should they be able to keep that benefit, and more so if that benefit resulted in a cost to Canadian taxpayers?
We all know that if everyday Canadian citizens made a decision that resulted in their receiving government benefits they were not entitled to receive, not only would they have to repay those benefits, plus interest, but they could have their bank accounts seized or their wages garnisheed. I can tell members that there are single mothers who have had this very thing occur to them when it was ruled that they were not entitled to the Canada child benefit they received.
Here is my question for this place. Why should this principle, which applies to everyday Canadians, not apply to the Prime Minister? Why is there one set of rules for the Prime Minister and another set of rules for everyone else? A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, unless one is the prime minister and then apparently one should not be required to pay back illegal benefits the same way everyday Canadians are.
Keep in mind that no one forced the Prime Minister to take this trip. No one forced the Prime Minister to bring along the president of the Liberal Party of Canada. These were all choices by the Prime Minister. I would like to think that at least some in the Prime Minister's inner circle would have advised against taking this trip, but ultimately we know that the Prime Minister does not care. This is a Prime Minister who by his own actions demonstrates that he believes he should not be subject to the same rules as everyday Canadians.
Our last prime minister, by contrast, made changes to his own pension that were estimated to cost him personally over $1 million. He did that because he was asking MPs and members of the public sector to make adjustments to their pensions, and that prime minister did not believe he should be above that.
More troubling, if this Prime Minister believes that he is subject to a different set of rules and that he should not have to repay the benefits that were illegal, which any other Canadian would be forced to repay, why, at a minimum, does he not come before this place and tell Canadians why that is? Why is the Prime Minister not here today being held accountable for his actions? To be clear, they were his actions. Why is he not defending his actions in front of other members?
Why is it that, when this question comes up in question period from the official leader of the opposition, more often than not the Prime Minister refuses to answer and simply hides behind his House leader? What kind of leader does that? The last one did not. Every time that I can recall, when the official leader of the opposition rose to ask questions, the previous prime minister rose to answer those questions, much as the previous prime minister did when the leader of the third party rose with questions. Of course, that is what a leader does. He or she answers questions from the leaders of the other parties, but this Prime Minister does not.
The Prime Minister chooses, as he fancies, to hide behind his House leader because, of course, he is above having to answer questions from other official party leaders when he does not like the questions. Why is that? It is all because he does not think he should have to repay the cost of something that he and his insider friends decided to illegally benefit from. Those were his choices, and now he hides from doing the right thing and repaying those expenses, or at the very least coming to this place and explaining to Canadians why he does not have to repay them the same way other Canadians would.
This is what troubles many of us. I know that there are many good people on the government side of the House who know the rules of this place and follow them. That is how we honourably represent the citizens of our areas and how we try to keep cynicism away from politics and maintain trust as much as possible.
Now, the Prime Minister has a choice: either repay the funds or at the very minimum come before this place and explain to Canadians why the rules that would impact them in such a situation should not apply.
There will come a day when we all look back at the time we spent in this place. Will the Liberal members think of the time they defended the Prime Minister's illegal vacation, which he was found to personally benefit from, as being what they would have been most proud of in their time here? I suspect we all know the answer to that.
I ask all members to send a message that all Canadians are equal when it comes to repaying taxpayer-provided benefits they were not eligible to receive in the first place.