Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is covering up his corruption with $41 billion in brand new spending that he will pay for with higher taxes after the election, if he is re-elected. In this sense, it is the most expensive cover-up in the history of cover-ups. It is the Liberal two-step: big deficit spending to distract from corruption before the election and big tax hikes to pay for it after the election.
Here we are, full circle. In the last budget, the finance minister quietly introduced changes to the Criminal Code that allowed large corporations accused of fraud, bribery and other corruption to avoid trial by signing a special deal. We did not know why he was doing that, but we soon found out when we learned that the finance minister and the Prime Minister pressured the former attorney general to offer a special deal to end the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin for over $100 million of bribery and fraud.
The finance minister has, so far, been running scared and unwilling to answer questions about the pressure he applied on the former attorney general. She testified to that pressure. She said that his chief of staff did likewise to her personnel.
If the finance minister has nothing to hide, will he appear before a parliamentary committee to answer questions about the pressure and the interference he carried out on the former attorney general with regard to the SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal, yes or no?