Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House on behalf of the hard-working people of Flamborough—Glanbrook. They indeed work hard for the tax dollars they send to every level of government, and they expect that those tax dollars will be respected and spent wisely. That is why it is unfortunate that we are here today talking about growing concerns of the Liberal government's corruption and incompetence.
I am speaking about yet another scandal, this time involving the $400 million of taxpayers' money funnelled into a cesspool of corruption under the guise of the Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund. It is not just a singular incident of scandal; it is the latest in a long, disturbing pattern of Liberal ethics violations. The SDTC scandal is not about some missing dollars here or there; it is about the systemic failure of the government to uphold the most basic values of transparency and accountability. It is a gross breach of trust, one that has eroded Canadians' confidence in their government institutions.
Conservatives warned about this. We have consistently called for transparency. We have called for the documents to be sent unredacted from the green slush fund scandal and handed over to the RCMP. That was the will of Parliament. What was the response from the Liberal government? It was a refusal to comply. When the government ignores the will of Parliament, it is ignoring the will of Canadians, because members are here to represent the will of Canadians.
Let us be clear that when parliamentarians demand documents, we have the legal and democratic authority to do so, yet the government violated the privileges of parliamentarians by refusing to release the requested documents related to the latest scandal.
The Speaker of the House has ruled that parliamentary privilege has indeed been violated and that we must pause the work of the House until this corruption can be properly addressed. It is because, as my colleague from Fort McMurray—Cold Lake said, Canadians deserve better. They deserve to know where their hard-earned tax dollars are going, because they do work hard for the money that they pay in taxes on each paycheque.
However, with the Liberal government, every year we see a new scandal and a new abuse of trust. We have seen them before with the WE Charity scandal, the SNC-Lavalin affair, the Winnipeg lab cover-up, arrive scam, the infamous “other Randy” and of course now the SDTC scandal. This is just the latest chapter in a Liberal government that has been defined by corruption and secrecy. Enough is enough.
Let us first examine the Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund and what it was supposed to be. SDTC was created with a noble goal in mind: to promote innovation and green technology. The fund was supposed to support small and medium-sized businesses, foster collaborations among sectors and enable the development of cutting-edge sustainable technologies that would benefit Canadians.
However, it is clear that this vision has been utterly betrayed. Instead of serving as a driver for innovation and progress, the SDTC fund has been turned into a Liberal slush fund, a vehicle for funnelling millions of taxpayer dollars to the pockets of insiders and Liberal-connected businesses. Instead of supporting Canadians, it has supported the Liberal Party's friends and allies. The Auditor General's investigation found that there were 186 cases of conflict of interest, involving some $400 million paid out.
That is a lot of money, which could have been spent helping small businesses that are struggling. It is money that could have been spent purchasing over 400 MRI machines. It is money that could have been spent on proper equipment for our military so members do not have to buy their own helmet. As we recently saw, $34 million was spent on sleeping bags that did not work for Canadian winters, when it was less than 5°C, which of course is the temperature a good portion of the time in parts of Canada. Imagine that. We could have bought 10 times the number of proper sleeping bags for our military with the amount of money that was funnelled to Liberal friends.
What kind of oversight allows this to happen? There was no oversight. The Auditor General made that clear. The blame for this scandal falls with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. According to the Auditor General, he “did not sufficiently monitor” the contracts that were being handed out to Liberal insiders. I would suggest this was not an accident or an oversight. There was negligence at the highest levels of government and a misuse of public funds.
The Auditor General's investigation revealed an astounding 186 conflicts of interest. Those are 186 instances where taxpayer money could have gone to real innovation, to families struggling with the cost of living and to businesses trying to stay afloat. Instead, the money was funnelled to companies with ties to senior Liberal officials. What kind of government allows this? How can Canadians trust the government when it behaves like this?
The SDTC fund received, overall, a billion dollars in federal funding, and yet $400 million of that was funnelled into ineligible projects. These were projects that by all measures should never have received a single dollar of public funding. The promises made in these applications were overstated, exaggerated or, in some cases, non-existent. This was wilful negligence. These insiders had projects rubber-stamped, knowing full well they did not meet the criteria. A blind eye was turned so the gravy train could keep flowing.
Canadians deserve answers on this. The people of Flamborough—Glanbrook who send their hard-earned tax dollars here want to know where that money went. What did the government do when we, as elected representatives, demanded transparency? It violated parliamentary privilege by refusing to hand over critical documents related to this scandal. The Speaker made it clear that Parliament has the right, actually, the duty, to demand that these documents go unredacted to the RCMP, as was the motion of this Parliament.
We are here to hold the government accountable, to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly and in the best interest of Canadians. I am here specifically on behalf of the people of Flamborough—Glanbrook to watch over their taxpayer dollars. The Liberals have thumbed their noses at Parliament, at the Speaker and at the Canadian people. As their excuse, they claim handing over these documents would blur the line between Parliament and the judiciary. It is not about blurring lines; it is about protecting their friends and hiding their corruption. It is about a government so entrenched in scandal, so determined to shield its insiders, that it is willing to trample on the very principles of transparency that underpin our democracy.
As we stand here discussing yet another glaring example of Liberal mismanagement, it is impossible not to draw comparisons to another scandal that took place, which was mentioned by one of my colleagues earlier this week in debate, and that is the ad scam scandal. At that time, we know, this was a scandal where the Liberal government used public funds for private gain. This was in the early 2000s and involved 40 million public dollars that was funnelled through advertising agencies for work that was never done or was grossly overpaid. That is $40 million, which is no small sum—
