Debates of Nov. 4th, 2024

Reference to Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there are really two ways of slicing this. The implication is that these conflicts were reported to the ministers, and the ministers saw them and decided not to act, which is itself obviously outrageous. The other possibility, which is entirely possible, remembering always the dictum that one ought never to ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence, and looking at the record of the current government, is that it may very well be that, like the Prime Minister, the relevant minister simply never looked at his briefing book.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the member might spend a moment on talking about remedies, for those who think the House should merely move on to other business. I do not care for the government bills that are potentially going to be debated, but some would say we must get on to other business. However, the remedy for what one might think of as paralysis in the House would be to dissolve the House and go straight to an election and let Canadians pronounce on what agenda should be pursued in the House of Commons.

Does the member have any comments on that as a specific remedy to the impasse, if the government is unwilling to fulfill its obligation and table the documents?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague is quite right. We could, and probably should, go to an election. The House of Commons has a kind of tenuous confidence in the government right now, so it would seem. It should be understood that “confidence”, used in the parliamentary sense, does not mean robust confidence; it means unwillingness to trigger an election. Certainly, in this party, we are willing to go to an election and we would very much like to do so. My sense is that there is a willingness in the Bloc. The NDP is wavering, in the hopes the government will see the light.

However, in terms of where Canadians are, it is abundantly clear. There has never been a prime minister, since polling started, who has been as unpopular as the current Prime Minister, who has been opposed by more people. The people of Canada deserve to have a say, regardless of what our rules are here. We can all agree that, morally, that ought to happen. I am not suggesting that somehow we should override the rules with respect to the confidence convention, but clearly it is well past the time for the Prime Minister and his tired party of incompetent ministers to move aside.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is good to see you here today. I am happy to have a chance to contribute to this discussion. It is always an honour for me to stand and speak on behalf of the great people of Souris—Moose Mountain.

If I may, I would like to take a moment to give a shout-out to my five-year-old granddaughter Zella, who is beautiful and brilliant just like her mother Kathryn, my daughter, and her grandmother Donna, my wife. I would also like to shout out my two-year-old grandson Porter and my 16-month-old twin grandsons Kaysen and Atlas.

The reason I bring them up is that not only are these people very important to me, but these particular children, like all children in Canada, are the main reason I do what I do. I love them with all my heart. However, I worry about their financial futures after nine years of the government's reckless spending. The Liberal green slush fund we are talking about today is a prime example of just that. As I stated, I appreciate this opportunity to add my voice to the debate we are having here in the House, which we have been having for a number of weeks.

I have listened to many speeches delivered by my colleagues on this issue, and I admire the perseverance they have shown in making sure the government is held accountable for its failure to produce the documents that were ordered by the House. It is shameful we are not able to move on to other business simply because the Liberals refuse to follow the rules. This is also something we have, sadly, come to expect after the last nine years of the Prime Minister.

One of my colleagues tallied up the number of scandals that have occurred under the Liberal government, and he came up with approximately 68 scandals, an alarming number to say the least. If we look at it another way, that means the Liberals are dealing with a new scandal about every two months. Some people, like myself, might wonder how this is even possible, especially since the Liberals got into power by claiming to be the most transparent and accountable party out there.

Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I find that very ironic given today's discussion. In fact, in October 2013, six months after becoming the leader of the Liberals, the Prime Minister tweeted, “It’s hard not to feel disappointed in your government when every day there is a new scandal.” What does that say about the Prime Minister? There has been scandal after scandal.

We on this side of the House have been dealing with this exact problem for nearly a decade now. In this particular instance, it is costing the taxpayer an eye-watering $400 million. This is not the kind of governance I wanted for my country. I know the majority of Canadians are also sick and tired of the Liberals' repeated failures and complete inability to manage public funds.

I would like to remind all members that the seats we are sitting in do not belong to us. They belong to the people, the taxpayers, who put their faith in us to represent their best interests and to make their lives better in whatever way we can. The people voted for us because they trusted our ability to govern honestly and openly, and that is something I personally hold very sacred. Watching the Liberals flout the rules of this institution by refusing to comply with the House order to produce documents is offensive, not just to me but to all Canadians. It is a slap in the face of democracy and it insults the very people who put MPs in this position of privilege, here in the House of Commons chamber, in the first place.

The overarching theme that appears to encompass the Prime Minister's time in office over the last nine years is “rules for thee, but not for me”. What the public sees with the current government is hypocrisy at every turn. How are Canadians meant to trust a government when its leader continually says one thing but does another? The Prime Minister tells Canadians they need to cut down their emissions, and what does he do? He flies in a private jet, taking dozens of trips a month, and likely has one of the largest carbon footprints of anyone in this country.

The Prime Minister said “the budget will balance itself”, yet he has now spent more in the past nine years than all other previous prime ministers combined. The Prime Minister said he would maintain an open and transparent government when he got elected, yet the second the WE Charity scandal hit the headlines, he prorogued Parliament to avoid accountability. Time and time again, the Liberals fail to practise what they have preached, and they refuse to be held accountable for their failings.

The fact of the matter is that the rules of this place and how it functions are written out in black and white. I believe all MPs have a copy of Bosc and Gagnon's House of Commons Procedure and Practice in their office, and this information is also available on the Internet. We can all access it on our computers or on our phones, so there is really no reason these procedures would not or could not be followed when they are so clear and readily available.

When it comes to the right to order the production of documents, Bosc and Gagnon's House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, 2017, states the following on pages 984 to 986:

The Standing Orders do not delimit the power to order the production of papers and records. The result is a broad, absolute power that on the surface appears to be without restriction. There is no limit on the types of papers likely to be requested; the only prerequisite is that the papers exist in hard copy or electronic format, and that they are located in Canada.

It continues on to say:

No statute or practice diminishes the fullness of that power rooted in House privileges unless there is an explicit legal provision to that effect, or unless the House adopts a specific resolution limiting the power. The House has never set a limit on its power to order the production of papers and records.

This is not the first time this section of the procedure and practice manual has been quoted during this particular debate. That is because it is so essential to how our country's government functions, or does not function, in this case.

The House of Commons has, without question, the right to order papers to be produced by the government, and it has done so in the appropriate way, by following the appropriate rules. The Liberals have failed to do their jobs and have broken those rules, yet again showcasing their disregard for the institution of Parliament and eroding public trust at the same time.

One of the roles I am very fortunate to have had during my time as a member of Parliament was chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, otherwise known as OGGO. I took that job very seriously, because I knew there was great trust being put in me to uphold the rules and follow the procedures that had been set out and established by my predecessors.

This was the job I was given, and I like to think I did it well and to the best of my ability. It was not difficult for me to follow the rules. I had some incredible support from the House of Commons committee staff, including the clerk and the analysts, so there was no reason I was unable to follow the letter of the law with their help and guidance. We have the same support here in the House of Commons, and I thank all the clerks and all the experts in this place who work so hard to make sure we can do our jobs properly for Canadians.

With all of these great minds coming together, as well as the ease of access we now have with technology, one would think it would be easy to know and comply with the rules of Parliament. However, the Liberals still cannot seem to figure it out. Canadians expect that at the very least, their elected officials are the type of people who follow the rules and respect the institution of Parliament. This is why they elected us, and upholding these rules and institutions is one of the most basic functions of this role.

What Canadians do not want to see are members of Parliament who are stalling the business of this country because they are desperately trying to cover up their $400-million scandal. That is exactly what is happening when they tune into CPAC these days. It is disappointing, yet not surprising, that the Liberals are doing anything they can to dodge accountability for their mistakes. What must be in these documents that the Liberals do not want Canadians to see? It makes us wonder.

As we know, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, also known as SDTC, is the organization that has been at the centre of our debate since September. The initial purpose of SDTC, as outlined on its website, was as follows:

SDTC finances and supports the development and demonstration of clean technologies which provide solutions to issues of climate change, clean air, water quality and soil, and which deliver economic, environmental and health benefits to Canadians.

As someone who represents a riding that has been a world leader in developing the utilization of carbon capture and sequestration technology, otherwise known as CCUS, I know first-hand how important it is to ensure that the funding meant for this purpose goes to the right people and places. Thanks to investments made by the previous Conservative government, the CCUS facility at Boundary Dam power plant in my hometown of Estevan, Saskatchewan, has now been in operation for 10 years. As of the end of 2023, this facility had captured a total of over 5.8 million tonnes of CO2 since 2014, prevented it from entering our atmosphere and sequestered it two kilometres underground. This is exactly the kind of project that SDTC was meant to facilitate.

It is clear that, when taxpayers' funds are handled by a competent government, it creates an environment where innovation and development can flourish. We have seen it before, and, under the next Conservative government, I know we will see it again. Sadly, the reason we are having this debate today is that taxpayer funds at SDTC were abused to the tune of a whopping $400 million, not a penny of which has been paid back. Money was given by directors to companies that they had huge conflicts of interest with, companies that they were affiliated with and stood to gain from.

I come from a rural riding that has historically relied on the development of this country's abundant natural resources. The biggest industries in my constituency are agriculture and energy, and I can say right now that farmers are some of the best, most-educated environmentalists and stewards of the land that we will ever encounter. The innovation and ideas that our agriculture producers have had, and continue to have, to reduce emissions, improve our agriculture and so much more are astounding. They have done this all while producing some of the best crops in the world. I can only imagine what these producers could have done with the $400 million that the government misappropriated through SDTC. Liberals should be ashamed of themselves for trying to cover up such a gross and egregious misuse of taxpayers' dollars. One might ask this: Where did that money go and into whose pockets?

I would like to focus on that figure for a moment because the amount of $400 million is difficult for the average person to really visualize. In times past, families and governments would count their nickels and dimes; over time, that was turned into dollars and cents, then into hundreds and thousands and then into millions and billions. If we look at the national debt, with the current government, we are counting trillions, with families still trying to keep up with the nickels and dimes.

The Liberals have upped the ante in all the worst ways. Too much scandal has been coupled with too much spending, and Canadians have had enough. When the Liberal leader became Prime Minister, the national debt was just over $612 billion. Today, nine years later, it has doubled to over $1.2 trillion. As mentioned, he has spent more in this time frame than all other previous prime ministers combined. As I stated before, I can only imagine the difference that $400 million would have made to the people in my riding if that money had been spent responsibly and constructively instead of being used for the Liberal green slush fund.

I know the town of Coronach, which has been absolutely devastated by the government's so-called just transition, would have benefited massively from just a small chunk of that money. It stands to lose up to 67% of the town's population by 2030 because of the government's policies and lack of support over the last nine years. Its local representatives have pleaded with the Liberals for more funding and more boots on the ground assistance, but they have been getting virtually nothing. They have even come all the way to Ottawa on multiple occasions to state their case before the government and the other House about the need for greater government support.

Instead of getting funding that might save their country, what do the people of Coronach see? They see rich Liberals getting even richer through corrupt and illegal means. They see a government that refuses to be accountable to the people who elected it. They see $400 million going to people who did nothing to earn it but rub shoulders with the right people in the right places. The system was blatantly abused, and the attempt to cover up this abuse by refusing to produce the ordered documents is almost as bad.

According to the Auditor General's report, there were 186 conflicts of interest in the grants that were delivered by SDTC. The amount given to projects in which board members of SDTC had a conflict of interest was roughly $334 million. For those following at home, such that the numbers add up, there was $58 million given to projects where the terms were not even ensured.

These board members, I will remind the House, were appointed by the Prime Minister and by Mr. Bains, the then minister of innovation, science and industry. They hand-picked these individuals and approved them for this job. The board members then felt it was appropriate to make funding decisions that benefited themselves. This is extremely concerning, and I will expand a little on why that is.

Since I became an MP in 2015, one of my biggest gripes with the government has been its unwavering devotion to creating unnecessary bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister seems to love nothing more than hiring a board of people to consult on every issue under the sun, and he has no problem whatsoever with billing the taxpayer for it.

The Liberals create these boards and pay the members to consult, hold meetings and write reports; in many cases, there is almost no concrete benefit to show for it and little to no accountability for the board members. These people are paid with taxpayers' dollars. By “taxpayers”, I mean the hard-working Canadians who go out to do a job and get paid for their work. These people then pay taxes on that income. That is how governments make money. The current government likes to take the money from them to pay bureaucracies rather than using it to benefit the very people who work for it.

My worry is this: If the board of SDTC was able to waste and abuse 400 million taxpayer dollars so flippantly, how many other boards appointed by the government are doing the same? Are we just starting to scratch the surface or only beginning to really see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how deep this scandal might truly run? As we know, an iceberg is always bigger under the water than what is seen on the surface. Oftentimes, the cover-up is worse than the crime.

In this case, the Liberals will not even give the authorities the chance to determine how bad the crime really is. We know it is bad. The famous Liberal sponsorship scandal that brought down the government of the time was about $40 million, and this is 10 times that amount. As I mentioned before, it is a number so high that most struggle to really conceptualize it, including myself.

The $400-million scandal we are debating here today is not the Prime Minister's first. It is far from it. In fact, I am sure we all remember the WE Charity scandal, which was a whopping $600 million that the Prime Minister gave to his friends and Liberal insiders. He obviously did not learn his lesson then, and it is likely that he will not learn anything from this situation either.

We also had the ArriveCAN app, otherwise known as arrive scam; it cost the taxpayers $56 million for something that could have been created for a few thousand dollars. I am sure my constituents who cannot afford groceries would have loved a piece of that wasted $56 million, but I digress.

There was also the SNC-Lavalin scandal, in which the Prime Minister unethically and inappropriately interfered with our country's justice system by pressuring a cabinet minister to do something against her greater judgment. That is a prime example of how he has absolutely zero regard for the rule of law of this country; it shows that he truly believes he can do whatever he wants without consequences.

I would like to wrap up my remarks by reminding my colleagues that Remembrance Day is soon approaching. As the son of a veteran and as someone who was raised to have the utmost respect for the men and women who have fought for this country, we need a government that does better. Our veterans fought for us to be able to live peacefully and safely in this country, which upholds the rule of law above all else. The least we can do as parliamentarians is to reflect that value here in the House.

I call on the Prime Minister and his Liberals to stop the cover-up and produce the documents so that we can get back to the work that truly matters. Better yet, he can just call a carbon tax election.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, it is very important we all recognize that we are witnessing nothing more than a Conservative Party tactic, directed by the leader of the Conservative Party.

We have now seen 95 members of the Conservative Party stand up to filibuster an amendment to a motion that they actually introduced to the House. All we want to see is for the Conservative Party to stop the multi-million dollar filibuster and start putting Canadians' interests ahead of their own leadership ambitions and above the Conservative Party of Canada.

It is disrespectful. It is a continuation of the contempt of Parliament Stephen Harper showed when the current leader was his parliamentary secretary. Now we get the leader of the Conservative Party abusing power here on the floor of the House of Commons, even when he is the Leader of the Opposition.

My question for the member is this: How can we expect the Leader of the Opposition not to control his abusive ways, which we have witnessed in the past and are seeing again today?

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Madam Speaker, it is good to see that there is at least one Liberal over there who knows how to add, because 94 plus 1 makes 95. It is good to see that happen. We see the member up all the time, yet we do not have questions from anybody else other than the said member. We are continually talking about 95 of us, but where are the 150 of them?

To answer his question, the reality is what my constituents continually tell me. They do not ask me about what the member keeps talking about. They ask me where that money has gone. Where did that $400 million get spent? Why are Canadians not getting it back?

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, the NDP supports the motion. We want to get to the bottom of this latest Liberal scandal, as we did with WE Charity and with the SNC-Lavalin scandal. However, the reality is that my colleague, whom I have a lot of respect for, talked about where the money has gone. This is a question that Canadians have been asking since the Harper regime was in place; the Harper Conservatives absolutely, steadfastly blocked any possibility of finding out what happened to the money in the various Conservative scandals. There was the ETS scandal, for $400 million, and the G8 scandal. We remember the gazebos and a billion dollars, the Phoenix pay scandal of $2.2 billion and the anti-terrorism funding, where they simply lost the paper trail, of $3.1 billion.

With all of these Conservative scandals and all of this Conservative corruption, in every single case, the Harper regime shut down any transparency and any answers for Canadians. As such, my question for my colleague, whom I have a lot of respect for, is simply this: Where did all that money go under the Harper regime, and why have Conservatives never apologized for that misspending and corruption?

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Madam Speaker, over the years, in the nine years that I have been here, I have watched the member here in the House. He brings a lot of experience because he was here before my time. The Harper era was before my time, so he is asking me to respond on questions that I was not here for.

However, with that said, for almost 10 years, the NDP-Liberal government has been here. The only reason the Liberal government has been here for the last five years is that it has been propped up by the NDP. If it were not for the NDP standing up and supporting it, the House would have fallen a long time ago; we would have been in that carbon tax election. However, we are never given that opportunity, because the NDP continually wants to support the government. Its members love to say to the media that they have torn up the document, but when the votes come, they vote for the Liberals.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague talked about being the son of a veteran. I think, at this time of year, we should reflect upon a line in a poem written over 100 years ago by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae:

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.

I often think about that line. I think the foe lives in people who seek to subjugate or to divide or to prevent us, as Canadians, from having the freedoms that are our birthright, that those men fought to protect. I am wondering if my colleague opposite could talk about why it is so important for each of us, regardless of political stripe, to take up that quarrel with the foe and what that means to him.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Madam Speaker, that is a great question, especially at this important point of time. It is very humbling for me to be here in the House because the privileges that I have today are thanks to so many Canadian veterans. Those privileges are what I believe in.

As I mentioned in my speech, this seat does not belong to me. It belongs to my constituents. The people we will be remembering in a couple of days will be those who gave us that right to sit here and to speak, to sit here and represent our constituents because this is their seat. I am here just to be the voice for those people. We are all just here to be the voice for those people. We need to continue to be the voice for those people and those people who come on after them and who will continue on for generations and generations to come.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, I am wondering if I can express what I believe a vast majority of Canadians are in fact concerned about. We have the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, who wants to be the prime minister but refuses to get the security clearance. It begs the question as to why. What is it that the leader of the Conservative Party is so scared of? Is there something personal in his background that he does not want Canadians to know?

That is a legitimate question. I believe that Canadians have a right to know. The Greens, the Blocs, the NDP and the Liberals all have it. The leader of the Conservative Party has chosen not to get it.

Does he believe Canadians have a right to know why?

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Madam Speaker, there is a squirrel. Did someone see that squirrel that just ran through here? That is what these Liberals love to do. They love to scream “the squirrel”, so we look at something else as opposed to paying attention to what has been going on. That is what they want. They just want to distract Canadians so that we can talk about something else as opposed to talking about the $400 million that they handed out to their friends.

People are driving on the highway and they will say that there is nothing to see here, to keep going. That is what they are all doing. There is nothing to see here. Just keep going. We are doing just fine. It is $400 million. The government wants to tell Canadians to not look this way and to not worry about it, that it is only $400 million because it is only “million”. It is not “billion”. It is not “trillion”.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Madam Speaker, at the beginning of the hon. member's speech, he talked about his grandchildren and how important it was that he was here to secure their future.

Could he elaborate a little bit more on why it is important to illuminate the corruption of the Liberal government and what it will mean for future generations?

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for allowing me to highlight my grandchildren, because they are the most important part of my life, other than my wife. I need to put that on record. I have witnesses.

That is what is so important here. We need to remember who is paying that debt. Who is going to end up paying this $400 million, which is going to be added to the $1.2 trillion that has already being accumulated by the government? When we talk about 1.2, Canadians try to turn around and say that it is only only 0.2. I point out to them that this 0.2 is $200 billion.

Who is going to pay that? It is going to be my grandchildren. It is going to be our grandchildren. It is going to be everyone's grandchildren, and then some, who are going to have to pay that.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Madam Speaker, what a tough act to follow, my colleague with those brilliant words about accountability for the government. It has been a month that the House of Commons remains at a standstill. The Prime Minister and these NDP-Liberals will stop at nothing to throw sand in the gears of Parliament in a blatant attempt to cover up their costly corruption.

These documents are still missing. The taxpayer money is still gone. The dirty deeds still go unpunished. It has been more than a month. When we look at the numbers, it is astounding: $400 million vanished, 186 conflicts of interest, one government in contempt of Parliament. It refuses to hand over the evidence to the RCMP and that is exactly why we are here. It does not want Canadians to know who got the money and how. It does not want Canadians to know how badly it mismanaged this boondoggle. It does not want the RCMP to start sniffing around on what is actually going on.

That just tells us whatever is in those documents must be really bad. It must be more than our usual garden-variety Liberal corruption. If they shut down Parliament for a month, there must be something brutal in those documents. I think Canadians have a right to know; that is why we are still here. Day in and day out, parties in the House are demanding the Liberals do their basic duty and provide transparency that Canadians deserve and, frankly, the Speaker demanded.

They stand up claiming the government is working in the best interest of Canadians, as that is what their objective is, but it is a bit rich from a party that has now stopped this place from operating for a month. The paper trail must be so long and lead all the way to the top. That is the only conclusion to draw from why they have stopped this place from working for a month.

Nearly 10 years ago, the Prime Minister pledged he would lead the most “transparent” and “open” government in the world. Those were his words. Ten years later, it is easy to see just how far they have fallen. His caucus is now forced to do the dirty work to cover up yet another scandal from the government. If stonewalling documents about corruption for months on end is the behaviour of the world's most transparent government, I would hate to see what happens in the world's least transparent government.

If the Prime Minister wanted to make the promise about transparency, maybe he should have said he would lead the most transparently corrupt and incompetent government. That would be a promise he could certainly brag about keeping. That would be one that would result in us not having to be here, certainly, for a month, arguing with them about their basic duty to turn over the documents to the cops.

Conservatives have a plan, and they have a plan on keeping a promise, too. Our promise is to hold the government accountable for every bad decision it makes, for every grifter who gets rich off Canadian tax dollars and for every ethical lapse in judgment from the Prime Minister and the cabal of Liberals who have been a problem in that respect, and every conflict of interest. That is the duty of the opposition, it is one that we take seriously, and it is one we will argue for here in this place for as long as it takes for these guys to actually be accountable to Canadians.

We will not let up until we make sure Canadians have the answer and this does not happen again. Now, it seems with the culture of corruption, with the Liberal and the NDP members, it has transferred over to another party. It seems like the Bloc wants in on the action too. It is offering the Prime Minister a secret deal to let him off the hook for this corruption and incompetence in order to serve the Bloc's narrow interest. It is a deal with the devil, so to speak, between them and the federal government, to see all the corruption swept under the rug until the next scandal. We know there will be another one, to get a firmer grip on power and play politics with the rights and the privileges and the obligations of this place.

When Canadians look at this Parliament, they see Liberals and Conservatives and NDP and Bloc and Green Party members, but now it is clear, while there are five parties that actually sit here, there are really only two parties: one mega-party that supports the Prime Minister and his agenda, blindly voting to declare continued unaccountability to the Canadian people, but more than that, unfettered confidence in his leadership; and only one party that is really standing up for Canadians.

However, after nine years of the Prime Minister, the most devoted Liberals are realizing that the Prime Minister's corruption and incompetence are just too much to handle. At least 24 of them, 24 that we know of, have finally seen the light. They are demanding a change because the writing is on the wall. They feel it in their own constituencies, with people who used to be excited to see them. They are fed up with everything that the Prime Minister has become and that he said he would not do. They see record-high inflation and home prices. They see out-of-control government spending. They just see how out of reach life has become in Canada. They, like all of us, like almost every Canadian, have lost confidence in the Prime Minister. Really, who can blame them?

It is now evident that the Liberals will do anything to stay in power; even a humiliating U-turn that we saw last week on immigration when they set these sky-high targets and then had to reverse themselves; even throwing around unfounded conspiratorial accusations, like we just heard from questioning right before me, about the Leader of the Opposition and foreign governments. The tinfoil hats over there must be real tight; even turning the trite and, frankly, ridiculous fearmongering about individual rights, things like abortion in this country, that every Canadian now sees through.

This is the same old strategy: divide and conquer; divide this country into smaller and smaller pieces so it is easier to keep a grip on power and make sure that everybody forgets how miserable the Prime Minister has made their life. Canadians are tired of this. They are tired of the division and they are tired of being labelled as some kind of “other”. They are tired of being told that north is south, up is down and wrong is right. Certainly, they are tired of a government that cares more about itself than Canadians. That is what this whole saga is about.

It is not just the Prime Minister who is not in it for Canadians. He is in it for himself and for his friends. As long as he has to cling to the job for a bit longer, to ship some more money off to Liberal insiders, he will do whatever it takes to stay in power. The Liberals will do whatever it takes to argue in this place, rather than do their duty and hand over the documents to the RCMP, like the Speaker ordered them to.

Look at everything happening outside of this place: violent crime is up 30%; crimes with firearms have doubled in this country since the Prime Minister came to power; there are illegal drugs on our streets; loved ones cannot get the help that they need; and car theft in my home region of York is up 300% in just three years. There are members of the Liberal caucus who are celebrating an hourly drop in auto theft patterns and they are patting themselves on the back for it. They do not need to celebrate a 20% decrease in auto theft when it has increased 300% under their watch. That is not success; it is a victory lap on failure. Yet, that is exactly what they are doing. The average home price in that same region is $1.3 million. There has been runaway deficit spending by a finance minister who still misses her targets. Canadians, who are already struggling to make ends meet and afford a place to live, are staring down the barrel of even more tax hikes and price increases. We have seen it day after day, month after month, year after year, for nine years of these guys.

We just found out that platforms like Spotify are raising subscription fees. The finance minister already told everybody in this House and every Canadian that she would cut Disney+, and I guess she is going to have to tell them to cut Spotify, too. That is the latest of the tone-deaf condescending suggestions from a finance minister who has somebody else pulling the strings in her own department. That is not to mention the serious allegation of election interference from foreign states and the Prime Minister's dangerous complicity in it, or the instability and the insanity happening on the other side of the world in the Middle East, or the out-of-control anti-Semitism on our streets.

We cannot talk about any of that in this place. We cannot fix any of those things because the government is focused on running out the clock while it tries to cover up for its own mismanagement, its own scandal-ridden government. That is what this debate is about. It is about making sure that we no longer let the Prime Minister use his office as a platform to enrich his friends and his own self-interest at the taxpayer's expense.

There is an easy fix to all of this, and it can happen in mere minutes: The government just needs to release the documents, give them all to the cops. That is all, and we can put the issue to bed today. Release the full documents to the RCMP, not at a committee and not in their redacted form. If the Liberals truly had nothing to hide, then they should not be scared of anything, certainly not of turning the documents over. There is no reason why the release cannot happen, except for the government's own obstinance in this place.

We can tell by the arguments they are making that the Liberals are desperate to avoid accountability. They are blathering on about their endless nonsense about the charter, which they have used to trample on the rights of Canadians when it suits them, and about committees so that the issue dies a slow death under the guise of transparency, and so on. The charter was created to protect Canadians from their government; it was not created to protect the government from Canadians and from accountability, from the people who actually voted them in here.

Equally, if there are allegations and there is wrongdoing, we do not call a committee; we call the RCMP, the institution with the power to prosecute the corruption and to get Canadian taxpayers their money back and get them accountability to see what their government is doing with their money. That is the least the government can do in this place after a month of arguing about the motion.

That is what has come after nine years of the Liberal government: We now need the Mounties to come in to sort things out because the Prime Minister is obviously not able to sort things out by himself, or more likely, because he is covering up something.

The Prime Minister is out of his depth in every single way. When it comes to representing Canada on the world stage, he allows the nation to be humiliated and embarrassed time and time again, whether it is with a stirring rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, allowing our country to become a playground for hostile foreign governments, or managing our economy. It is a shocker that the guy who says that the economy grows out from the heart believes that the budget will balance itself. He does not think of monetary policy and could not grow the economy, balance the budget, control inflation rates or interest rates in any way not just for this generation but for generations to come.

Even when it comes to doing basic things, the government could not even make a simple app work. It took months, and it sent 10,000 people inadvertently, unjustified, to a quarantine. The app should have never existed. We did not need it, and it could have been built in a weekend if we had needed it at all. Certainly there is also corruption in that case.

It is no wonder that the Prime Minister's caucus and his party are revolting against the Prime Minister, even in former fortresses like downtown Montreal and downtown Toronto, where people have just repudiated nine years of the Prime Minister by electing members from other parties.

One thing the Prime Minister excels at and we should give him some credit for is shipping off other people's money to line the pockets of Liberal insiders, as well as to fund pet projects and money to massive corporations, while Canadians go hungry and lose sight of the country we all once knew and loved. He has given $12 million to Loblaws,; $26 million to Costco; over $100 million to McKinsey; $107 million to GC Strategies, the two-person company run out of a basement in Ottawa; $900 million to the WE Charity; $50 million to Mastercard; and billions of dollars of bloated bureaucracy to Bombardier and, of course, to the CBC.

Additionally, no one can forgive or forget the $100 million that the government has shipped to UNRWA, an agency founded to employ terrorists, which participated in the October 7 massacre and is now trying to argue that it is legally immune from being responsible for doing so. Again, the money is being spent while Canadians go dumpster diving because they cannot afford the price of food.

The Conservatives will put an end to all of this. We will put an end to the corporate welfare that lines the pockets of Liberal insiders doing nothing to create jobs or prosperity in this country.

We will immediately stop funding UNRWA and start funding our own NATO allies instead. We will of course defund CBC, without question, and maybe CBC first. Simply put, we will give Canadians back control of their money, their wallets and their lives, which is something the government has refused to do time and time again. It is why we are here.

It has been almost a month of arguing over why the government will not turn over documents that you, Mr. Speaker, told it to turn over, and why the Liberals will cower from accountability for the people, the taxpayers, to know where their money went, who it enriched and what is in the documents. If the Liberals had nothing to hide, they would turn the documents over today and we could end this.

We can then get back to Parliament and fix the things the Liberals have broken in this country after nine years. We can cut taxes, build homes, fix the budget and stop crime. There are any number of issues that the Liberals have screwed up over nine years, and we can get back to business if they just turn over the documents to the RCMP, exactly like you, Mr. Speaker, told them to.

Hon. Murray Sinclair

[Ben Carr, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to pay tribute to Murray Sinclair.

Murray Sinclair strengthened the fabric of this country in ways that few others have. I had the true honour of working closely with him while at Canadian Heritage. As a young staffer, I was in awe of him. I had the true honour of seeing his kindness, how measured he was and that he was wise beyond words. He was instrumental in providing us with guidance on the creation of legislation to protect indigenous languages. I have never seen a public figure so universally revered as he was.

Senator Sinclair is nothing short of a national hero. Most notably, his work leading the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission changed the trajectory of this country in the most important of ways. His work to help heal and propel Canada forward will serve us well for decades to come.

As a member of Parliament from Manitoba, it is with particular pride and gratitude that I thank Senator Sinclair for helping us to find the best versions of ourselves in service of this beautiful country.

Edward E. Fast

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last week we laid my father, Edward E. Fast, to rest. He was 97. He was raised in Manitoba as a child of Mennonite immigrants. Dad's family barely survived the dirty thirties. By the time he was 14, he and his six siblings were orphans. A kind stepmother struggled to feed them. Although poor, Dad was an excellent student and studied dentistry in Toronto.

Nine months after he married Helene Schulz, I was born and we moved to Vancouver. There my father practised dentistry for many years. Seven more children were born, and my parents ensured that we were deeply loved and properly educated. What animated my father was his deep Christian faith, his family and an intense interest in politics. It was he who, 60 years ago, inspired my own career in politics.

I know that our father in heaven will have welcomed Dad with the words “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Predeceased by our mother, Dad leaves behind eight children, 35 grandchildren and, at last count, 109 great-grandchildren.

We love our dad.

Diabetes Awareness Month

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, November is Diabetes Awareness Month.

Every three minutes, one person in this country is diagnosed with diabetes. I want to recognize organizations like Diabetes Canada, Breakthrough T1D, Diabetes Action Canada, CDA, NIDA, CINA, Diabetes Québec and all the researchers, advocates and volunteers who are doing great work for diabetes in Canada.

This month is a time to raise awareness for diabetes. I encourage all parliamentarians to attend the Kids for a Cure reception happening tonight on Parliament Hill. The kids are here today from across Canada to raise awareness on diabetes. Also this week, on November 8, I will be hosting the fourth annual World Diabetes Day flag-raising ceremony in my city of Brampton. I encourage everyone to join with me there.

I am so proud of the work our government has done to pass the Pharmacare Act so Canadians living with diabetes will have access to diabetes medication. Just as the House stood united behind my Bill C-237 to create a national framework for diabetes, by working together we can defeat diabetes.

Herby Moreau

[Caroline Desbiens, Bloc, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec's arts and media community was saddened to learn yesterday that cultural journalist and TV personality Herby Moreau has passed away at the age of 56.

No stranger to red carpets and opening nights, Herby knew everyone, and everyone knew and liked him. He had a natural talent for drawing people out, and he infused our cultural scene with a touch of glamour and prestige that would have been lacking had he not been a part of it. He rubbed shoulders with A-list celebrities and had access to the biggest stars in Hollywood and the world, but his passion for our own cultural industry never wavered. He knew how to showcase our homegrown artists with an approach that was both professional and entertaining.

The Bloc Québécois would like to offer its sincere condolences to his son Julien, his family, his loved ones and the dozens of collaborators who worked with him over the years. The Bloc Québécois would like to join in the tributes to this son of Haiti, who became one of the most influential and beloved cultural figures in Quebec's arts community.

World Diabetes Day

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Speaker, November 14 is World Diabetes Day. It is an opportunity to raise public awareness about a disease that affects one in 10 adults around the world. In Canada, more than 300,000 people live with type 1 diabetes.

Today I met two young girls with diabetes who are visiting Parliament. They told me their story and talked to me about what it is like to live with this disease on a daily basis. I was impressed by their courage and their resilience, but also by their determination to pursue their hopes and dreams despite their diagnosis. I can relate to what these two young girls are experiencing, because my son Charles was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in February 2017, when he was 18.

Thanks to research, the supplies Charles uses have gotten a lot better. Now it is much easier for him to manage his disease on a daily basis, which enables him to thrive as a phys ed teacher. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the people living with diabetes and the loved ones who support them. I am pleased that our government is working to develop a national universal plan that will provide coverage for a wide range of medications.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Before moving on to the next speakers, I would like to remind all members that they should limit their statements to 60 seconds. There is some flexibility, but I do not want people to exceed the time limit too much.

Food Security

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, after nine long years, Canadians are desperate for a change from the NDP-Liberal government. Food Banks Canada recently released its HungerCount report. Over two million Canadians are visiting food banks each month. The report found a 6% increase in food bank visits compared to the previous year, which had already broken a previous record. That is what we are seeing happen under this carbon tax regime. The failed socialist experiment starves Canadians and attacks our energy industry, which is key to western Canada's economy and fuels prosperity across the country.

Back home in Saskatchewan, Food Banks of Saskatchewan has said that children make up 30% of people in need nationally. However, in Saskatchewan, that number jumps to 39% for children. That is almost a 10% increase. Meanwhile, the total number of visits has gone up 42% since 2019 due to the carbon tax, inflation and housing costs.

The Liberals refuse to fix what they broke, and that is exactly why Canadians are demanding change. The Conservatives stand ready to axe the tax and bring home affordability. It is time for the Prime Minister to call a carbon tax election.

101st Anniversary of the Republic of Turkey

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. On October 29, 1923, Turkey was formally declared a republic. It was also the day it elected its first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk is beloved to this day by Turks all around the world and is credited with creating the foundations of modern-day Turkey.

Canadians of Turkish origin are a vibrant community whose language, culture and traditions have enriched the social fabric of Canadian society. Now, in 2024, the Turkish Canadian community has grown to more than 75,000 strong. Organizations such as the Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations and the Turkish Culture and Folklore Society of Canada work hard to put on important events for the community throughout the year. I want to acknowledge them and thank them for their contributions.

Canada is stronger because of our diversity, and the Turkish Canadian community has made us a stronger and better country.

Housing

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Conservative leader announced his plan to shut down housing projects across the country. He is proposing reckless cuts that will devastate housing progress in Canada, including in my own riding of St. Catharines. Even his own MPs are going behind his back to secretly write the housing minister to support the housing accelerator fund and advocate that their communities get the funding their leader wants to cut.

Let us be clear about what is at stake. Reckless Conservative housing cuts could jeopardize up to 750,000 homes over the next decade. By his own math, the Conservative leader wants to build at least 450,000 fewer homes. Canadians cannot afford these cuts to housing.

Conservative MPs need to stand up for their communities and stand up against their leader's reckless housing cuts. We need to build more homes, not fewer. It is painfully obvious that the Conservative leader is not serious about housing.

Economic Adviser to the Liberal Party of Canada

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last year, a report from an international tax watchdog accused Brookfield of dodging taxes around the world, stating, “there is an apparent pattern of aggressive tax avoidance consistent across its global operations.” It is no coincidence that last week, Brookfield, a megacorporation chaired by senior Liberal economic adviser Mark “carbon tax” Carney, announced it is moving its headquarters from Toronto to Wall Street.

Reports say Brookfield pays a measly average tax rate of 6.1%, but the average Canadian family pays a whopping 45% of their average household income in taxes. Here is the reality: Carney gets paid more if Brookfield pays less tax. While he works to make sure that his company pays less tax, he wants Canadians to pay more carbon tax, all while he is formally advising the Prime Minister on economic policies without ethics or lobbying guidelines.

This is wrong. It is time for the NDP-Liberals to stop letting this man put his own profit over the people of Canada.