Mr. Speaker, for weeks now, the regular business of this chamber has been put on hold because of the Liberal government's refusal to produce the documents ordered by the House. Parliament is, in fact, seized by this issue.
We are unable to get back to the regular business of this place. Whether it is the doubling of housing costs, Liberal food inflation or the crime and chaos in our streets, there are many pressing issues that deserve the attention of the House. However, this privilege motion must be dealt with. We must ensure that Parliament has the powers necessary to hold the government to account.
To be clear, the Liberal government has the power to bring this debate to an end. The Liberals could choose today to comply with the production order that was adopted by this House and affirm the collective parliamentary privileges of this chamber. Instead, they continue to dig their heels into the sand. The Liberal government is more preoccupied with the protection of those involved in the Sustainable Development Technology Canada green slush fund than they are with ensuring the integrity of this institution and the health of our democracy.
Parliamentary privileges are vital to the proper functioning of Parliament. These privileges ensure that the House and its members are protected from undue interference so that we can hold the government to account. This includes the collective privilege of the House of Commons to order and compel the production of documents that it deems necessary to carry out its duties.
The Conservative motion adopted this past spring ordering the production of documents relating to the green slush fund does exactly that. The motion requests documents that are necessary to hold the government to account for its abuse and misuse of tax dollars through the green slush fund. The receipt of these documents will allow Parliament to provide proper scrutiny of the government's program and the government's spending.
The Liberal government's refusal to provide the documents obstructs our collective ability to hold it to full account. The Chair's finding in this question of privilege is clear. The motion ordering the production of documents was adopted by the House and the request itself was clear, but the government has not complied with it. The redaction of certain documents and, in other cases, the outright refusal to provide documents are unacceptable. Withholding this evidence is a breach of the House's parliamentary privilege, and the impact of this failure to comply with the production order is not to be underestimated. The impact goes beyond just this particular issue.
The Liberal government's actions are once again eroding the public's confidence in this institution. The corruption that has been exposed in the SDTC green slush fund is shocking and chips away at public trust in the government. If there is no real accountability for those involved in the corruption, it would be a massive hit to the confidence of Canadians in the checks and balances of this public institution.
Trust in our public institutions is a fundamental pillar in a healthy democracy. The erosion of trust in the Canadian Parliament should not be taken lightly by any member of the House. Distrust in this institution breeds division, feeds cynicism and apathy and is ultimately a threat to our democracy.
While the Liberal government continues to stand in this place telling us to simply just move on, we cannot move on. We have a duty to Canadians to safeguard this institution, to ensure that the privileges of this House are not violated by a government with something to hide and to ensure those who brazenly misuse and abuse Canadian taxpayer dollars are held to account. We as members of Parliament have a duty to fight back against the erosion of trust that is being fuelled by the Liberal government's obstructive tactics. Accountability and transparency are the remedies to the distrust that has been sown by the government.
That is why common-sense Conservatives continue to stand firm with our demands. We have a responsibility to Canadians and to the constituents who elected us to this place. The corruption that ran rampant in SDTC cannot go unchecked. The evidence related to the green slush fund must be handed in so that a criminal investigation can be conducted. Those who knowingly and intentionally stole or misused public funds must be held to account.
The Auditor General's report on SDTC is incredibly damning. In fact, when we read the Auditor General's report, we see there is no question that SDTC became a slush fund for Liberal insiders. SDTC awarded money to ineligible projects, and these projects clearly did not meet the goals or objectives of the program. However, they were still handed taxpayer funds. In total, at least $59 million went to projects that were not even allowed to receive money. According to the Auditor General, no steps were taken to recover funds used for ineligible projects.
It is clear that ultimately, it is a failure of the Liberal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, who did not sufficiently monitor these contracts. The minister failed Canadian taxpayers by not ensuring that public dollars were being used appropriately.
The ineligible projects are just the tip of the iceberg in this scandal. In addition to identifying the funding of ineligible projects, the Auditor General identified 186 cases of the SDTC board of directors violating the Conflict of Interest Act, and that in 90 cases they directly violated their own conflict of interest policies, conflicts of interest that were identified using SDTC's own records. Those are public funds awarded to Liberal insiders, with case after case of connected Liberals getting ahead using taxpayer dollars. In some of these cases, projects received funding despite being both ineligible for funding and tied to a conflict of interest. That means Liberal insiders were awarding themselves or their friends taxpayer funds for projects that, by all accounts, they should have known were ineligible for funding.
Let us not forget that the chair of the SDTC green slush fund, who was hand-picked by the Prime Minister and the Liberal government, awarded $217,000 to her own company. The chair of the fund awarded her company these funds even though the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology Act clearly states:
no director shall profit or gain any income or acquire any property from the Foundation or its activities.
Conflict of interest policies and directives are necessary to protect the interests of Canadian taxpayers, but the SDTC green slush fund did not follow the Conflict of Interest Act or even SDTC's own conflict of interest policies.
The complete disregard for established conflict of interest practices calls into question all of the decisions that were made by SDTC, yet the Liberal government allowed the continued misuse of taxpayers' dollars to go on. The Auditor General was very clear in her findings that the blame for this scandal lies at the feet of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. The minister failed to ensure that this billion-dollar fund had the oversight necessary to ensure the good stewardship of public funds. While the minister seems comfortable to allow this corruption to go on with no accountability, common-sense Conservatives are not.
The corruption at the Liberal’s SDTC green slush fund is evident and cannot be swept under the rug. That is why the House adopted the Conservative motion on June 10, ordering the production of documents in relation to the Liberal’s SDTC green slush fund. Those documents contain evidence of the corruption at the fund and should be handed over so that there can be a criminal investigation. Those documents were supposed to be received within 14 days of the passage of that motion. It has now been more than four months since the adoption of that motion, and the evidence has not been turned in. This is a violation of a house order.
It is a breach of parliamentary privilege, yet still, after weeks of the House being seized with this issue, the Liberal government does not want to hand it over. It would rather grind Parliament to a halt than hand over the evidence. We already know that 400 million taxpayer dollars were misused on projects that were ineligible or tied to conflicts of interest. The question then becomes this: What more are the Liberals hiding? What is buried in that evidence that they are so desperate to hide? What is more damning than what has already been revealed? There is another question: Who on those benches are they trying to protect? If the government has nothing to hide, then it would only make sense to bring everything to light to ensure that those who were responsible are held accountable. By not ensuring the production of documents requested, the Liberal government is actively covering up the evidence.
What is truly shameful is that this is not the Liberal government’s first breach of parliamentary privilege in an attempt to cover up its failed governance. The Winnipeg lab cover-up is yet another example. The Prime Minister was so desperate to keep the Winnipeg lab documents hidden, he fought tooth and nail to cover up the details surrounding the ability of the People’s Republic of China to penetrate our nation’s maximum security lab. He was so desperate to keep hidden the evidence that scientists secretly collaborated with the PRC’s top military scientists. This breach posed a threat to Canada and our allies, but the Prime Minister’s primary preoccupation was keeping hidden the details of this massive national security failure. The Liberal government went so far as to defy four parliamentary orders and take the former House of Commons Speaker to court. Then, of course, we all know that the Prime Minister ultimately called a snap election to wipe the decks clean.
Parliamentary privileges exist to ensure that members of Parliament can carry out their duty to hold the government to account. The Prime Minister is once again trying to cover things up, and we cannot allow this latest breach of parliamentary privilege to go unchecked. Quite frankly, Canadians cannot afford for the Prime Minister and his corruption to go unchecked.
It is absolutely disgusting that, while Canadians across the country are struggling to feed, heat and house themselves, the Prime Minister and his government allowed 400 million of taxpayers' dollars to be wasted or stolen by well-connected Liberals. This corruption is a slap in the face to every hard-working Canadian who is bringing a paycheque home and still struggling to put food on the table. After nine years in office, that is the record of the NDP-Liberal government: over nine million Canadians experiencing food insecurity.
Food insecurity has increased 111% under the government's watch. That means that nine million Canadians do not know where their next meal is coming from. Food Banks Canada has reported that almost 50% of Canadians feel financially worse off than they did last year; 25% of Canadians are experiencing food insecurity; and, across the country, food banks have seen a 50% increase in visits since 2021. That is the result of the NDP-Liberal government's failed policies, such as the costly and punishing carbon tax, which it continues to double down on.
The carbon tax is adding to the input costs of groceries at every single point in the supply chain. It is taxing the farmers, the processors, the shippers and the grocers. At the end of the day, those costs are passed on to Canadians at the grocery stores, but of course, it affects more than just groceries. The punishing carbon tax is increasing the cost of everything. It is adding to the cost of basic necessities, such as fuel, food and home heating.
In the midst of this affordability crisis and record inflation, the Prime Minister and his NDP coalition partners have repeatedly voted to hike the carbon tax, and they remain hell-bent on quadrupling it. Canadians are facing financial hardship because of the Prime Minister's taxes and his inflationary deficits. The Prime Minister's reckless deficits have pushed inflation to its highest level in 40 years and have driven up interest and mortgage rates. The Prime Minister's inflation has eroded the paycheques of Canadians, but not all Canadians are impacted in the same way.
The PBO has confirmed that lower-income Canadians are disproportionately impacted. The paycheques of Canadians cannot even afford the lifestyle they had just a few years ago. That is because paycheques cannot keep up with the skyrocketing costs of food, shelter and transportation, but while low-income Canadians struggle to stretch their paycheques, the wealthiest Canadians have seen their wealth grow. That means that the Prime Minister's inflationary deficits and taxes have resulted in a wealth transfer to the wealthiest Canadians.
The Prime Minister is causing financial misery for those Canadians who can afford it the least, and at the same time, the Prime Minister and the Liberal government are allowing public funds to be spent unchecked. That is unacceptable. It is ethically and morally objectionable. The Liberal government's deficits year over year are fuelling inflation, and there is $400 million in misused funds that are adding fuel to the fire, fuel that is making it harder for Canadians to make ends meet, not to mention the countless better uses there could be for those dollars.
This cover-up must come to an end. Canadians must get the accountability and transparency that they deserve. The Liberal government's repeated breaches of parliamentary privilege, ethics violations and corruption scandals have broken the trust and confidence of Canadians in this institution. This is further weakened when Canadians continue to see their financial situations deteriorate while well-connected Liberal insiders are getting rewarded. Trust in our public institution is built on transparency and accountability. Ending the cover-up would help us to take steps toward restoring that trust and strengthening the resilience of our democracy.
The amended motion that we are considering today lays out clear instructions for the committee on procedure and House affairs. It is already clear that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry failed to protect the misuse of taxpayer dollars, and if the Liberal government is going to continue to impede the release of evidence, then it is vital that this issue be given the fulsome and careful consideration that it requires. The stakes are high, and the Liberal government's dismissive attitude is to not treat this issue with the seriousness that it deserves.
The government's continued fight against transparency and avoidance of accountability threatens the health of our democracy. The Liberal government must hand over the unredacted evidence, and the Prime Minister must end the cover-up so that Parliament can get back to regular business.
