Mr. Speaker, I am seeking leave for an emergency debate this evening.
The recent revelations that several members of the Prime Minister's immediate family have received nearly $300,000 from the WE organization have raised serious questions about the government's decision to enter into a $900-million agreement with that same charity. This was followed by the revelation of further ties between the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and that organization.
I believe it is clear that this issue meets the threshold for an emergency debate.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have admitted that their failure to recuse themselves from the cabinet decision on this contract was wrong. Conservative members of Parliament have written to the RCMP requesting a criminal investigation, and the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner has initiated investigations to determine whether the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance contravened the Conflict of Interest Act.
More and more details are emerging of the relationship between the various entities under the WE umbrella, such as the money flowing back and forth from the charitable wing to the for-profit corporation. This is an organization that provides a platform and endorsements for Liberal politicians. Those very same politicians then make the decisions as to whether or not to approve these sole-source contracts to this organization, and I believe that falls under the administrative role of government.
Also, speakers regularly look, in terms of whether not they will approve an emergency debate request, at whether there are opportunities for opposition parties to raise these issues. I point out that the House of Commons has not been allowed to sit since the middle of March. We have lost our opposition days. We have lost our ability to put questions on the order paper. Many of the tools normally available to Parliament have been eliminated by the government's motion to effectively sideline Parliament.
There are no opposition days coming up. This is clearly a matter in the public interest. This was something that we were looking forward to questioning the Prime Minister on today. He said, last week, that he would be in the House to answer these questions today, but he is taking a personal day.
I hope that this request will be granted to allow members of Parliament and the government to further delve into the sordid affair the Prime Minister finds himself in.