Mr. Speaker, after nine years under the Prime Minister, Canadians face a buffet of corruption scandals, with each new revelation showing just how entrenched corruption has become under the Liberal government. The latest is the green slush fund, a $400-million scandal that the Liberals are scrambling to keep hidden from Canadians. Unfortunately, that is why we are here today.
The Auditor General uncovered that Liberal appointees funnelled hundreds of millions of hard-earned taxpayer money to companies that the appointees themselves owned, setting off no fewer than 186 glaring conflict of interest violations. What did Canadians get from the government? Instead of transparency, Canadians got a government openly refusing a House order to turn over key documents for an investigation. This refusal to co-operate led the Speaker of the House to rule that the Liberals have violated a direct order of Parliament. Canadians want to know why the government is refusing to turn over these documents. They have a right to know. What is so damning in those documents that the government is refusing a House order to hand them over?
At a time when Canadians continue to shoulder soaring costs for food, housing and basic necessities, the government's cover-up has not only wasted hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, but also paralyzed Parliament, not allowing members of the House to continue crucial work on urgent issues, such as the rising cost of food, the cost of housing and the cost of the Prime Minister. Perhaps stopping these discussions at a crucial time when Canadians want a carbon tax election is exactly what the Prime Minister and his elitist friends had in mind.
As Canadians continue to live through this unprecedented crisis of government waste and Canadian suffering, today, instead of addressing critical issues that Canadians are struggling with, we find ourselves talking about the government's ongoing negligence, incompetence and continued corruption. Imagine being a taxpayer who is struggling to pay for food, lining up at the food bank with children and then hearing that billions of hard-earned tax dollars are not only being wasted by the government, but being given to Liberal friends.
I have heard from many of my constituents in Edmonton who are struggling to afford to heat their homes, to fill up their car with gas and to feed their families. People in Canada are dumpster diving to feed themselves. We never thought that could happen here in this great country. This is what life in Canada looks like for many who work and are still unable to pay their bills.
These hard-working Canadians are shocked that the taxes they pay simply disappear in a web of Liberal corruption scandals, bogus apps, useless infrastructure banks and endless corruption, supported by the NDP. Despite all of this, the NDP's support continues to prop up the Liberal Prime Minister, allowing the disgusting misuse of taxpayer funds to persist.
The 2024 HungerCount report shows that food banks saw a record of over two million visits in March 2024 alone. That is up 6% from last year and a staggering 90% since 2019. Many of these people used to donate to the food bank and now are lining up at the food bank to help support their families. Over a quarter of these visits were by children. Because of this high demand, nearly 30% of food banks have reported running out of food over the past year.
Unemployment and economic misery continue to rise while paycheques are shrinking. It is the Prime Minister's inflationary spending that has driven up the price of groceries, gas and heating. To make matters worse, his endless tax hikes drive businesses, jobs and investments out of our country. Billions of dollars of investment have left Canada and, along with it, all of the jobs that it would have created.
Those in the middle class, once secure, are now struggling to keep a roof over their heads, and life has become an uphill battle for Canadian families. This is not just a temporary hardship. It is a fundamental shift in what it means to live and work in Canada.
Today, life costs more under the Prime Minister, and hard work no longer provides the security it once did. Canadian families with two working parents cannot afford to buy a home anymore in Canada. Nine years ago, this would have been shocking to hear.
Since 2015, the cost of housing has skyrocketed. Rent has doubled, mortgage payments have doubled and the down payment needed to buy a home has doubled. In fact, housing costs have risen more in these nine years than all of the previous decades combined. Canada, a country with vast, open land, now has the highest housing costs and one of the fewest homes per capita among all G7 countries. At the same time, life has never been better for Liberal insiders and elites, who are filling their pockets with hard-earned Canadian taxpayer dollars. One government project and one government scandal at a time, they are lining their pockets.
Despite a House order to provide documents for the green slush fund, the government has chosen self-interest over the best interests of Canadians. Rather than doing what is right, the Liberals have failed to show leadership, transparency and accountability, showing the House and all Canadians that they will do anything to cover up their multitude of scandals, including this $400-million corruption scandal.
How did we get here? Let us review what the green slush fund is and why the Liberal government is hiding key documents that would aid the RCMP in this investigation.
Sustainable Development Technology Canada was created as a billion-dollar fund with support across party lines to help green technology start-ups tackle climate and environmental issues. This program ran smoothly until about 2017, under the Prime Minister's newly appointed Liberal board chair.
After a Conservative motion led to an audit by the Auditor General, it was revealed that $400 million of taxpayer funds were misused, with 80% of reviewed cases showing conflicts of interest. The Auditor General's findings only scratched the surface. She reviewed a sample of cases, finding that 80% contained legal violations. Those central to the scandal, who were Liberal-appointed board members, had even managed to secure other government positions. One SDTC board member, Andrée-Lise Méthot, acknowledged multiple conflicts of interest involving funds directed to companies that she was financially invested in. The current environment minister, before his cabinet role, was an adviser at Cycle Capital, the venture firm Méthot founded, which received SDTC funding during her board tenure.
As these revelations surfaced, Méthot was appointed to the board of the $35-billion Canada Infrastructure Bank, where McKinsey consultants with Liberal ties were heavily involved. Despite the conflicts of interest in funding companies tied to her financial interests, she transitioned to this new role. Ms. Méthot has been directly implicated in mismanaging $42 million of taxpayer money to benefit companies she was financially linked to. Despite clear violations to benefit her own company, the government saw fit to appoint her to the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which is another example of its waste and negligence. This is what the blatant misuse of Canadians' trust looks like: when individuals who repeatedly violate conflict of interest rules are rewarded with prime government positions due to their Liberal connections.
Speaking of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, this is another glaring misuse of taxpayer dollars and another project riddled with similar issues of mismanagement and conflicts of interest. Just as with the green slush fund, the Canada Infrastructure Bank has become a haven for Liberal insiders and politically connected firms that are more interested in securing lucrative contracts than delivering real value to Canadians.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank, presented as the Liberal government's flagship initiative, has proven to be a costly disappointment. Instead of delivering the infrastructure that Canadians desperately needed, the Canada Infrastructure Bank has squandered taxpayer monies on excessive overhead, high-priced consultants and generous CEO payouts, spending far more on salaries and bonuses than actual projects. Nearly $1 million was wasted on consulting and legal fees for an electricity project that never even came to fruition. With a budget of $35 billion allocated seven years ago, Canadians were promised a return on investment of up to four times from private sector company contributions, as well as an ambitious multiplier effect of 11:1. Yet, seven years later, those promises remain unfulfilled.
The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities has concluded that the CIB is beyond repair and recommended its abolition, citing expert testimony from stakeholders who highlighted its inefficiency, lack of transparency and inability to attract private sector investment.
At a time when Canadians are grappling with record high inflation and rising costs of living, they cannot afford these expensive government initiatives that fail to deliver anything that they promised to Canadians. Once again, the Liberal government's mismanagement of the CIB exemplifies a broader pattern of waste under the Prime Minister.
Since June, the government has demonstrated complete disregard for Parliament's authority and its duty to uphold Canadian democratic principles. Conservatives had introduced a motion demanding transparency. We called on the government to release all the files, communications and financial records on their green slush fund to Parliament, which would then turn the documents over to the RCMP for a much-needed investigation.
However, after the motion passed, the 30-day deadline for compliance was ignored by the Prime Minister. The government has openly disrespected Canadians and this House's authority when some of their departments provided heavily redacted documents and others outright refused to provide any documents at all.
The Speaker of this place ruled that this refusal showed contempt, quoting that only partial disclosures were made, owing either to redactions or the withholding of documents. Some met the order with complete refusal. The Department of Justice alone withheld 10,000 pages, violating Parliament's demand for evidence so that the RCMP could proceed with its investigation.
This is not a political debate. The RCMP is not investigating this matter at the direction of the Conservatives. The RCMP found credible grounds for a Criminal Code investigation. It will review the documents, and it will determine if charges are warranted. The RCMP will proceed as it sees fit.
The House of Commons represents the people of Canada with absolute powers under our Constitution to oversee the actions of the government and the actions of the Prime Minister.
In Canada, no one is above the law and everyone must abide by our Constitution, even the Prime Minister and his wealthy buddies. By consistently dismissing Parliament's authority, the Liberal government demonstrates open contempt for this balance of power, undermining the very institution that checks executive actions. Our democratic strength rests on the House's authority to hold the government accountable, investigate breaches and protect Canadians' interests.
We cannot let the actions of the Liberal government dilute the power of Parliament and the integrity of our democracy. What exactly is the Liberal government trying to hide in this case? Why is it so determined to keep these documents from Canadians? Just how far does this corruption reach?
The government's embarrassment over the mismanagement of the green slush fund has driven it to shut Parliament down, yet this does nothing to excuse the actions of those involved in the slush fund to relieve the government of its duty to Canadians. It owes Canadians, Parliament and the RCMP a full explanation of what happened, when and just how deep this scandal goes.
This House could get back to business today if the Liberals showed the integrity to hand over those documents, yet we know that they will not. These documents would expose the extent of the Liberal corruption and exactly how high this goes. It is clear the NDP-Liberals are not worth the cost, the crime or the corruption. Canadians deserve better than a government that prioritizes its own pockets over the well-being of the people.
It is time for the NDP-Liberals to stop hiding the evidence, hand over the documents and let Parliament get back to work for Canadians.
