Madam Speaker, in my rebuttal to the parliamentary secretary, I want to read in here, right off the government website:
The [national security exception] element permits a government to exclude a procurement from the application of the procurement rules of the trade agreements if it is necessary for the protection of its security interests.
...[The government] shall only invoke the NSE if Canada's security interests are at risk.
National security is not at risk over the purchase of ventilators or N95 masks. The question back to the government is, what are the Liberals trying to hide this time?
It is just another example of how the government likes to cloak itself in the curtain of secrecy and never, ever talk about details of these contracts. This is another sole-source situation and we could be looking at another WE scandal. The government needs to come clean on this.