Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General of Canada launched a thorough investigation that revealed widespread conflicts of interest, corruption and abuse of Canadians' hard-earned dollars at Sustainable Development Technology Canada. On June 10 of this year, the House members, by a majority vote of 174 to 148, developed a motion calling for the production of documents from Sustainable Development Technology Canada to be turned over to the RCMP.
How did the government respond to an order from the people's voice? Departments either outright refused to comply or heavily redacted and blacked out relevant documents that the people demanded. There was nothing in the people's order to allow for any redactions. The people have demanded the truth, and they want the RCMP to be able to investigate the misuse and abuse of their dollars. This has been the talk of the Ottawa bubble these days: The Constitution Act, the Parliament of Canada Act, parliamentary privilege and the privilege of the House.
Imagine that, while sitting in these hallowed chambers surrounding by deferential security guards, we could be debating our privileges as members. There are Canadians out there who are hungry and worried about how they are going to heat their homes as the winter sets in, but our privileges have been breached. It is not our privilege, but the right of Canadians to know what their own government is up to. Our Fathers of Confederation gave that power of the people to their representatives who sit in this place. It is not because I am a member of Parliament that I believe I have the privilege to access these documents. It is because the people who we all represent have that right. They have tasked us in the House and, as a House, we have a powerful ability to exercise that right, an absolute and unfettered ability to exercise that right.
Why did the House feel compelled to order these documents? It has everything to do with the Auditor General's findings. She found that 82% of transactions involving payment from Sustainable Development Technology Canada to companies approved by the board of directors were conflicted. According to the Auditor General, $300 million of Canadians' money was given to companies where the board members who voted to award those companies had a conflict of interest. Three hundred million dollars of public money was being used to fund private interests of the people who were voting to award the funds.
It is reasonable to think that this scandal goes deeper. In the five-year period of examination by the Auditor General there were 405 transactions approved by the board. The Auditor General looked at 226, so just over half of the transactions, and found that 186 of the transactions were conflicted. We can assume that the ratio stands for the entire package of 405 transactions. The Auditor General also found that the same Liberal-appointed board approved and funded another 58 million dollars' worth of projects that were outside the mandate of the foundation. They were not even eligible under their own rules, but the Liberal board gave them the money anyhow. The Liberals would have us believe that this is an example of a bureaucracy off track, but the Auditor General made it clear that the blame of the scandal falls on the Prime Minister's industry minister, who “did not sufficiently monitor” the contracts that were given to well-connected Liberal insiders.
What we have here is not just gross mismanagement, it is corruption and blatant conflict of interest by Liberal appointees to the tune of $300 million. There was abuse of the public purse: A personal enrichment under the guise of helping the environment. Once these companies that were connected to Liberal insiders received these government grants, they were seen as having a seal of approval by outside financiers. This allowed these companies to go and collect millions more dollars to further their interests. It was a green slush fund for well-connected Liberals. Canadians' money was mishandled and private interest got in the way, once again, of the public good.
It would be reasonable to conclude that we are debating yet another Liberal spending scandal. Reasonable because there have been so many Liberal spending scandals that it is tough to keep up. It would be understandable if some were to believe that we are engaged in some sort of self-serving debate about members of Parliament's privilege. In truth, this debate, this motion of privilege that has halted all the other work of the House, is about the very foundations of our democracy and the right of citizens of this country to know what their government is doing. That sword of Damocles hangs over the head of the government. It hangs precariously over the Liberal government and its ministers who, on so many occasions, arrogantly operate as though they are above the law, as though they are above the people. Conservatives will never relent in exposing the corruption of the government, and we will never relent in our solemn duty to be the voice of the people in the House, their House, where we defend their rights above the rights of Liberal insiders, Liberal cabinet ministers and, most certainly, above the rights of the Liberal Prime Minister.
The citizens of Canada, through the House of Commons, have demanded the truth, all of it. It is time for the government to hand it over.