Madam Speaker, the member for Timmins—James Bay has claimed the Liberals and the NDP have broken up, but I think there is some evidence to the contrary. I will be cautious extending that analogy and describing exactly how there is evidence to the contrary, but I think there is evidence.
Here is why the privilege debate is important, to directly address comments the member made. Some $400 million of taxpayer money was essentially handed out among Liberal friends, people voting to give money to their own companies, with totally outrageous conflicts of interest persisting under the NDP-Liberal government. The House agreed to order the production of certain documents in relation to this affair. We have been very clear that this ends right this minute if the government agrees to hand over the documents. The reason the House is in this position is that the government refuses to hand over the documents.
We are not actually debating the privilege issue right now; we are debating a concurrence motion. The concurrence motion is aimed at preventing a government employee from simultaneously being an external contractor. It makes no sense for someone to receive the benefits of contracting while being a government employee. Again, why are we debating this motion? It is because the government opposes this proposal. A majority of the House supports it; the government opposes it.
Would the member agree to support this concurrence motion and implement this proposal? Then we can move forward in the best interests of Canadians.