Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to my friend for Regina—Lewvan again because that is probably the most I have spoken to him in a while.
I think the issues are deep. The SDTC is not a new program. It has been around for a couple of decades. Up until this government took over, the Auditor General had given a clean bill of health for the program and for its investments. This has only been since this government has taken over.
The Auditor General very clearly stated in her report that this falls at the feet of the current industry minister. It is very clear from the documentation we have seen with the contribution agreements that he had to have been told that there were conflicts, and he purposely ignored that because it was benefiting Liberal insiders, or he refused to ask if there were issues. We had a whistle-blower who made it very clear that the current minister was aware that these issues were brought forward. We have also seen the previous minister, Navdeep Bains, go around the application process to hand-pick the CEO, who was later convicted of violating conflict of interest rules, the same person who the Privy Council is now protecting by refusing to turn over the documents.
It is very clear that the rot is deep, and I think this is why the government is refusing to hand over the documents.