Madam Speaker, it is truly a privilege for me to take part in the debate on this question of privilege today. As members know, I have been in the House since 2006, and history has been repeating itself year after year since the election of the Liberal government. Unfortunately, the scandals have been piling up under this government, and the green fund scandal is just the cherry on top to crown the past nine years. “Cherry on top” may not be the right expression, but we can only imagine how much is hidden behind all the events and all these years. I must admit that I get the impression that this government is doing a big cleanup before the next election to hide as much as possible or to destroy whatever evidence it can before any investigation can be held into just about all of their accomplishments.
This big, colossal Liberal government is not even hiding it anymore. It openly refuses to provide the RCMP with the documents it needs to investigate the undeniable corruption that no doubt allowed Liberal cronies to benefit their friends with money from the green fund, as the Auditor General found. It is really sad because the green fund was actually a good fund designated by the Department of the Environment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Canada through technology initiatives. It would have been deeply appreciated and timely, given the challenges future generations will face over the next few decades in reducing greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, as I will demonstrate in a few minutes, this money was not necessarily used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but rather to line the pockets of Liberal Party cronies.
While Canadians are struggling, life has never been better for well-connected Liberal insiders. If a person is well connected, like the friends of the Liberal Party are, then they can apply for and get funds just like that. We are waiting to prove it, if one day we can get our hands on the documents that were requested by the House. Meanwhile, the Auditor General, Karen Hogan, was able to demonstrate problems with the financing of small and medium-sized businesses in the environmental technology sector that received money from the organization. The organization's mission is a very noble one, but that mission was perverted when the organization's budget of $1 billion over five years was used to line some people's pockets. Let me use my favourite saying: This is truly scandalous.
Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC, must remain independent and sheltered from politics in order to achieve its primary goal, which is to use scientific knowledge to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. The hope is that the government will appoint competent, independent people to the board of directors, who do not necessarily own businesses in the fund's sector of activity. The least we can do is avoid placing these individuals in a conflict of interest. That is the goal, especially since these technologies will let us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing our lives and our country's development to do it.
In any case, we, the Conservatives, on this side of the House, believe that science and technology will be one of the main tools in our tool box for improving our environmental track record when it comes to greenhouse gas. Concrete actions need to be taken. Investing in our Canadian scientists and in useful things like reducing our greenhouse gas emissions could make a huge difference in improving the future for generations to come. However, a corruption scandal of this magnitude has undermined the mission of SDTC, with non-repayable contributions that have nothing to do with greenhouse gases.
For example, the Auditor General noted in her report that she was able to analyze 18 projects completed through the fund rather than each individual project. She therefore looked at a sample of 18 projects. Of those 18 projects, 12 met only half of the greenhouse gas reduction targets, contrary to what was presented when the projects were being assessed.
Was this anticipated, or was the government pushing the limit when it submitted the projects for funding? Maybe, maybe not, but for now, if we extrapolate from all these results, it means that more than 66% of the projects submitted probably would not have qualified for public funding if they had been presented with the objectives they achieved. They would not have qualified for the funding and could not have been funded. However, they did end up being funded. Because of these false premises, they were granted funding, sadly.
Overstating the effectiveness of projects has unfortunately been commonplace. In fact, it has been the rule, not the exception. When accepting applications of that nature under a program, some might fail to meet the objectives. However, since 66% of the projects submitted did not meet the objectives, there may have been some irregularities when the applications were accepted.
The government's refusal to produce these documents is without a doubt an admission of guilt. The majority of members in the House of Commons voted to force the Liberals to make the documents public. We are still wondering why they have not been released.
Our parliamentary privilege is being violated and nothing is being done about it across the way. We might say that the government is trying to save face and hide the extent of the corruption in this whole affair. It is very reminiscent of the sponsorship scandal. They tried to hide a lot of things, but thanks to the perseverance of members who were sitting in the House at the time, we ended up getting to the truth, which led to an election and the defeat of the previous Liberal government.
What we are talking about here is the fact that some individuals gave public money to their own companies through the board of directors. Unfortunately, people gave money to companies that were owned by board members or by those who had direct or indirect ties to board members. They did it once, twice, three times, and perhaps as many as 186 times. Of course, after awhile, these people wondered why they could not have some money too, since they had given money to practically everyone. Everyone took a little. That is putting private interest above public interest, which is an all-too-common Liberal practice. Tax dollars were used to help private companies that, unfortunately, did not produce any results. One also has to wonder about that.
The Auditor General was very clear: The chair of the green slush fund, who was chosen by the Prime Minister, broke the law. She was in a direct conflict of interest. That was undoubtedly one of many errors in judgment on the part of the Prime Minister.
I would like to go over the events and provide some figures for us to understand the extent of the problem. Earlier this summer, the Auditor General found that directors had awarded funding to projects that were ineligible and that involved conflicts of interest. In all, $123 million worth of contracts were awarded inappropriately, and $59 million went to projects that should have never received money in the first place. The organization's own conflict of interest policies were broken more than 186 times. It is completely ridiculous.
In addition, the Auditor General found that more than $300 million in public funds had been paid out in more than 186 cases involving a potential conflict of interest. The Prime Minister's appointees were doling out money to companies that belonged to them.
Unfortunately, Canadians' tax dollars are being squandered yet again. The chair of the green slush fund was chosen by the Prime Minister, even though he had been warned of her conflicts of interest. True to form, the Prime Minister, did what he wanted and decided to appoint her to the position anyway.
SDTC is supposed to be an independent organization, accountable to the innovation minister. It has a duty to achieve its objectives and to fund companies that are genuinely beneficial to the environment in order to restore public confidence in our institutions as quickly as possible. Trust in our institutions has, sadly, been broken. This is really important here in the House because, in the Parliament of Canada as a whole, with all the funding we provide and allocate, we really do owe it to ourselves to be transparent.
After the forest fires that have raged across Canada in recent years, the Liberals are not taking the organization's mission seriously. We know that the organization's goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to find technologies to prevent these greenhouse gas emissions. Enough is enough. The Prime Minister must comply with Parliament's order and table the documents pertinent to the green slush fund so that the RCMP can investigate this corruption scandal. Canadians deserve transparency. The will of the House and the will of all Canadians cannot be ignored.
This whole slush fund mechanism was set up with full knowledge of the facts. It is hard to imagine that a big board of directors failed to understand or realize the potential for conflicts of interest in their own decisions. The ministers knew about it and refused to stop their friends at SDTC from engaging in corruption. A recording by a senior official called out the Liberal government on its incompetence for inappropriately awarding contracts worth $123 million. This was the senior official who said, on August 25, 2023, “There's a lot of sloppiness and laziness. There is some outright incompetence and, you know, the situation is just kind of untenable at this point.” He reported that the crooked business going on at SDTC is “a sponsorship-level kind of giveaway”.
The least we can say is that this new scandal deserves our full attention and that, once again, we are going to have to get out the magnifying glass, put our shoulder to the wheel and spend our time chasing down all the Liberals' unscrupulous dirty dealings. The House must address this new scandal as quickly as possible. That is part of our duty as legislators. It shows us once again that this Prime Minister and the members of his government fully deserve to be removed from the duties they are no longer worthy of.
I can just hear the Liberals, with a big fat smile on their faces, suggesting that the documents have already been handed over to the authorities and that the RCMP has already begun its investigation. However, the parliamentary law clerk indicated in his letter that the RCMP has not received all the documents that the House asked for and that the Department of Justice has refused to hand over its documents to the RCMP. Many documents have been redacted and others withheld. If the government does not hand over all the evidence to the police, there cannot be a full investigation. It is hard to find the truth with only half the evidence.
This whole story could easily be over if the Liberals ended the secrecy and handed over the documents to the appropriate authorities to determine once and for all whether there is culpability or not. This should not be a partisan issue. The other opposition parties in the House also voted for the motion, but the Liberals are slow to act on things and the 30-day deadline is drawing to a close, unfortunately.
As recordings that the whistle-blowers released last year showed, this controversy is one of a long series of scandals during the past nine years of Liberal incompetence. These scandals have involved both corruption and the squandering of public funds. Think of ArriveCAN, an application that should have cost $80,000 but ended up costing $59.5 billion. That is more than 740 times the original cost. Think of the WE Charity scandal, in which a contract to administer public funds was going to be sent to a foundation with close ties to the Prime Minister's family. When this was discovered, Parliament was prorogued.
Let us also not forget the excellent work of the Auditor General, who showed that the Prime Minister had inappropriately awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to McKinsey. In fact, 90% of the firm's contracts, valued at $209 million, were awarded without even following the appropriate guidelines, and 70% of those contracts were awarded non-competitively, without a call for tenders.
I could give many more examples, since the list is long, but people tend to remember things better when one follows a rule of three. In closing, according to my calculations, 58% of the green fund's seed funding, another fund, was distributed in Liberal ridings, whereas only 45% of the members here in the House are Liberals. We can therefore assume that non-Liberal ridings may not have received their fair share. There appears to be a lot of favouritism and unfairness again.
Canadians deserve a transparent, accountable government with sound judgment and integrity. Only the common-sense Conservatives will put an end to corruption and get answers for Canadians. Canadians want an election as soon as possible to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.