Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure and a privilege to rise in this place to promote and defend democracy, as well as to demand transparency and accountability from the government.
Before I begin, as a new member, I would like to thank the members of my team in Toronto and in Ottawa, who have helped me get up the learning curve to serve the great people of Toronto—St. Paul's: Chelsea, Ryanne, Jessie, Karen and Brooke. I thank them very much for their efforts. I have been stopped in the streets by strangers in St. Paul's who have thanked me for their good work and the work they do for other constituents.
We are on the 14th day of a debate that did not need to happen. It would not have happened if we had a government that was interested in accountability and transparency. Alas, here we are.
If the government would hand over the documentation that has been asked for and allow the RCMP to do its job, Parliament could move on. However, that is not the case.
I may be new in this place, and I may have a babyish face, but I was not born yesterday. The government's excuses for not providing the unredacted documents have changed several times since Parliament began asking for them; that makes me question the authenticity of the excuses. The government members said they were protecting charter rights; they then said the RCMP did not want the documents. It feels as though the government keeps flip-flopping to keep the documents hidden.
I have a particular interest in the government green slush fund scandal; we all do. It has already been established by the Auditor General that there was something awry with this fund, but we have all already heard a lot about that. I will talk more about that later.
One reason the green slush fun is interesting to me is that I used to work in the environmental field. Yes, that is true. In fact, I have a degree in civil and environmental engineering from Queen's.