Madam Speaker, my colleague pointed out that “a recording of a senior civil servant slammed the ‘outright incompetence’ of the [NDP-Liberal] government, which gave 390 million dollars' worth of contracts inappropriately.” The Auditor General found the SDTC gave $58 million to 10 ineligible projects that, on occasion, could not demonstrate an environmental benefit or development of green technology, and that $334 million over 186 cases was given to projects in which board members held a conflict of interest. Another $58 million was given to projects without ensuring contribution agreement terms were met.
The Auditor General made it clear that the blame for this scandal falls on the Prime Minister and the industry minister, and I would also argue the current environment minister, who did not sufficiently monitor the contracts that were given to Liberal insiders. While the radical environment minister punishes us, he lines the pockets of his NDP-Liberal friends. While the minister shuts down forestry with his radical 30 by 30 closures in B.C., Quebec and across the country, his friends are pocketing millions. While he shuts down the responsible oil and gas developments that keep our northern communities going and keep us warm in the winter, he helps his friends pocket hundreds of millions of dollars.
I will finish by quoting my friend from South Shore—St. Margarets, who stated:
This is corruption like we have never seen in Canada. This is why we have asked for the documents, because the Liberals are hiding documents. This is why they are resisting and hiding the documents, because they know there is more corruption there with their hand-picked directors. If we were a private sector institution, we would be turning those documents over to the police to investigate. That is our job. No, it is not just the job of the police to go to the courts to seek that. It is our job to—