Mr. Speaker, they are coming; the Liberals are coming back. They missed quite a lot.
I was just saying that members of Parliament, no matter who they are, even government members, are responsible for keeping tabs on the government. We cannot understand why government members lacked the courage to hold their cabinet to account concerning the green fund scandal and ask that the documents requested by the House be sent to the RCMP to allow us to move on from this question of privilege, which has brought our work to a standstill.
The most basic precautionary approach would have been to require the board of directors, the administrators of this $1-million green fund, to refrain from authorizing funding for their own businesses. That is elementary. At some point, did it not occur to anyone that something was wrong? After all, we are talking about nearly $400 million involving 180 real or potential conflicts of interest. How is it that no one in the organization wondered if they were off track, considering the large amount of money involved? We are not dealing with one or two cases, an isolated case, or a mistake. It looks like a system to me, and that is not good.
When it comes to the Liberals, it is one scandal after another. Whether through the Auditor General of Canada auditing what took place, especially at the highest levels, or through the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, we are discovering one scandal after another. As I said before, will the 24 members who are challenging the leadership of their own leader show a bit more courage and demand accountability at their cabinet meetings?
Unfortunately, all of this undermines Canadians' confidence in their highest institution. We are talking about people who get up every day and take the bus or their car to go to work. They pay the carbon tax and taxes on groceries, which continue to rise in price. These people get up and go to work. Then, they find out on the evening news that there are some shrewd people who lined their pockets with nearly $500 million or who mismanaged that money, money that is entrusted to members of Parliament who are the trustees of that money. What do the Canadians who are watching at home think of us?
We Conservatives do not accept that. Transparency is a cornerstone of our democracy. Otherwise, this is all a sham or wishful thinking. I refuse to sit in a Parliament where the rights of Canadians and Quebeckers who entrust us with their money are flouted, where no one looks too closely at what is happening, where people turn a blind eye, where redacted documents are sent to the House with information missing. They are laughing at us. The Liberals take us for fools. They take the members of the House for fools.
We will continue our efforts until we receive the documents and they have been sent to the RCMP, period. For us, there can be no compromise on transparency.
Citizens are watching us today. Afterwards, some people will wonder why we are being judged so harshly.
Our constituents have never been so cynical about public institutions. People are disengaged. They no longer believe in our institutions because there have been too many scandals caused by the Liberals over the past nine years. There is complete disinterest.
There is an expression in Quebec that talks about budgeting like a good father. It is an expression from another time and these days we might talk about budgeting like a good mother. It means not spending more than we earn. What have the Liberals done for the past nine years? Money flowed like water. It was smooth sailing. They created programs that already existed in the provinces, like pharmacare. Pharmacare is nice, it is good, and it makes the government look good. However, Canadians are covered. The government is duplicating programs that already exist in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. People are watching us and the government is spending and cannot even balance the budget.
When someone wants to get a bank loan they need to have a good credit history, they have to have paid their debts. They cannot spend more than they earn. They have to show that they are able to stay on track. That is what that means. However, that is not what has been happening these past nine years.
I will add another layer to that. I wish I had more time, because I have a lot to say. Housing costs have doubled, and people cannot take it anymore. HungerCount 2024 has been released, and it shows that three million Quebeckers are now turning to food banks. It is unprecedented. People can no longer find a place to live. Housing costs are one expense that cannot be cut back. When people do manage find a place to live, the only expense they can cut back on is groceries. With no money left to buy food, they are turning to food banks, which cannot keep up with the demand.
I will conclude my speech with this: I urge the government to do the only thing left to do, which is to hand over the documents to the RCMP.