Madam Speaker, it gives me no pleasure to rise in the House today to speak yet again to the issue of Liberal corruption. This is my second time rising in the House, and I will continue to rise as long as the Liberals refuse to hand over evidence to the RCMP. The Conservatives will not allow the Prime Minister or his caucus to hide the truth that Canadians deserve.
It is deeply concerning to witness the government covering up yet another scandal. According to the program's website, SDTC was a government-funded program that claimed to help Canadian companies “develop and deploy sustainable technologies by delivering critical funding support at every stage of their journey—from seed to success.”
What the program's website does not tell Canadians is that SDTC became corrupt when the Liberals made changes to its board of directors in 2019 under the direction of the Liberal industry minister, whose appointments were made to the board. The website does not tell us that the companies owned by these appointed directors would soon be caught in conflicts of interest due to receiving the same funds they were responsible for handing out. The SDTC website does not tell us that Liberal insiders began to siphon funds into their own pockets and were getting rich for years, while the Prime Minister and his cabinet turned a blind eye.
How do we know this happened? Extremely brave whistle-blowers came forward to call out the corruption they saw while working at Sustainable Development Technology Canada. Without their honesty, bravery and sense of morality, this scandal may have never been uncovered. Thanks to the whistle-blowers who flipped the spotlight on the corruption, the rats are now scrambling for cover.
The investigations that occurred as a result revealed that SDTC's negligence was much more than just mismanagement of funds. Yes, I did say investigations, plural, because both the Ethics Commissioner and the Auditor General have reported findings that greed and corruption were allowed to thrive under the Liberal government's watch.
Over the course of multiple investigations, including investigations by Conservatives at committee, it seems Parliament has only scratched the surface of the Liberal corruption. What started as tens of thousands of Canadian tax dollars being quietly directed to Liberal insiders turned into hundreds of thousands, which turned into millions, then tens of millions and finally hundreds of millions of dollars. Multiple investigations have revealed that through the green slush fund, $390 million in funding was approved for projects that had extremely disturbing conflicts.
What the Auditor General found, which was frightening, was evidence that the Liberals' green slush fund handed out $58 million to projects without a promise that contribution agreement terms were met. Another $58 million went to 10 projects deemed ineligible, as they, at times, could not prove an environmental benefit or were not developing green technology.
Finally, there was $334 million in over 186 cases where SDTC board members held a conflict of interest. Let that sink in. Out of the cases sampled, the Auditor General found 186 conflicts of interest, and who knows how many more she will find. Maybe that is why the Liberals will not release the documents to the RCMP. Canadians listening can draw their own conclusions.
I am proud to say that upon discovering the gross negligence and potentially criminal acts, the Conservatives stood firm and demanded that a proper investigation take place. The Conservatives voted to pass an order in the House of Commons to force the Liberals to hand over documents involved in the green slush fund. We demanded that they be handed over to the RCMP so a proper investigation can take place.
However, surprise, surprise, the Liberals voted against the document production and refused to release the documents to the House of Commons. This is undoubtedly a breach of parliamentary privileges, as the Speaker of the House of Commons has ruled. It is this breach of privilege that my Conservative colleagues continue to raise today.
Not only were the Liberals caught giving funds to their Liberal friends, but the minister responsible was also exposed for handing out tax dollars to projects with no guarantee that the projects would have a positive environmental effect. Some SDTC fund recipients had no requirements to meet the environmental goal set out in the fund, and others were not eligible for funding.
The Liberals failed to manage the program, leading to $390 million going into the bank accounts of Liberal insiders, which is precisely why the SDTC documents must be handed over to the RCMP so Canadians can understand just how corrupt the deal was and whether it was criminal. The situation proves once again that the Liberals are nothing more than fake environmentalists. We must hold the government accountable.
In my previous intervention on the topic, I listed several Liberal scandals that have been uncovered in the nine years under the Prime Minister, such as the SNC-Lavalin scandal, the WE Charity scandal and the $9-million condo on Billionaire's Row in New York. There are many more to list, but I am sure the Liberals know which ones they are.
All the blunders have a few things in common. They all have the fingerprints of the Prime Minister on them. They all involve Liberal negligence and the misuse of taxpayer dollars. Canadians are worse off for each and every scandal that the Liberals have created.
The Prime Minister has inflicted incredible damage on Canadians' well-being. Billions of Canadian tax dollars are being mismanaged by the Liberal government, and in some cases they are going directly to the Liberals' friends, with no real commitment to get results for Canadians who foot the bill. It has become clear that instead of working to ensure that Canadians have affordable food to eat, Liberals focus on ensuring that Liberals can fill their bank accounts. Instead of building enough affordable homes for Canadians to live in, Liberals choose to build bureaucracy and red tape. Canadians deserve a government that can benefit them, not just Liberal elites.
Life has become so expensive that 58% of parents are facing food-related challenges. One in four of these parents says that they personally ate less so their children and family members could eat, and 86% said that they are buying less-nutritious food for their children because it is cheaper. In my region, the King Township Food Bank has reported that food bank usage has doubled since 2019. The Vaughan Food Bank reported that 46,780 meals have been served since January.
Unfortunately, this Liberal corruption does not just have financial effects on Canadians, but it also has eroded the faith that Canadians have in all politicians.
I cannot help but reflect on the 2015 campaign and how the Prime Minister spoke of sunny ways, and creating the most open and transparent government ever. I would like to remind the Prime Minister that talk is cheap. I challenge him to support his words by acting on them. I ask him to prove to Canadians that he and his government will do the right thing by passing over the unredacted documents to the RCMP and let the chips fall where they may.
In order to regain the trust of the electorate, politicians must be held to a higher standard of accountability with repercussions for their unethical, corrupt actions. Members of Parliament are given the title “honourable”. The Cambridge Dictionary defines “honourable” as “honest and fair”. If members do not behave honestly and fairly, I feel they should be stripped of this title.
Last night I had a call with Stephanie, a bright, intelligent woman who has been following the proceedings of this scandal. She asked if I could pass on her message, so I will read her letter now in its entirety. I know Stephanie is listening right now. I have to replace names with titles in order to fit the rules of the House of Commons. I promised her I would pass on her message, and that is what I am doing tonight.
The letter states, “Dear Anna, I saw your outrage regarding the shooting of a helpful neighbour during a home invasion in Nobleton last Monday evening. The helpful neighbour who got shot was my work sister's husband. What the news story failed to report was that this man was shot in front of his six-year-old son. It was the boy who FaceTimed his mother yesterday while she was at work in the office adjacent to mine saying that his father had been shot. It is her six-year-old son that told his grandmother last night that he failed his father because he could not protect him. He had surgery last night at Sunnybrook and had a bowel resection. They are waiting in a room in yet another crowded, overcapacity hospital. I am beside myself with anger and frustration. [This Prime Minister] is Canada's biggest terrorist. He is an economic vandal that has let criminals run rampant, and nothing is happening. I watch clips of what is going on in the House of Commons and in Parliament all the time, and we are going in circles.”
