Debates of Nov. 8th, 2024

Reference to Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am sure you would be concerned. The member indicated it is the Prime Minister's Speaker. The Speaker serves all members; that should be pointed out.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I appreciate that, and it is something that has been brought up on a number of occasions. I want to remind members that the Speaker is elected by the House and rules the House impartially.

The hon. member for Lakeland.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Madam Speaker, that very Speaker has, of course, said that the House has the undoubted right to order the production of all of the documents, so the Liberals should give them to us.

Common-sense Conservatives are here to hold the government accountable for its failures, corruption and wrongdoing. MPs request the documents for scrutiny, not only by the RCMP but also by members of Parliament, as is our duty to Canadians who sent us here to represent them. In response, government departments either outright refused to comply or heavily covered up the documents they did provide, using the Privacy Act or the Access to Information Act to justify the hidden sections.

The truth is that nothing within the House order justified such redactions. The House of Commons possesses absolute and unrestricted power on behalf of all Canadians, grounded in the Constitution Act, 1867 and the Parliament of Canada Act, to order document production, unbound by statutory limits.

After the government blocked out and withheld the requested documents, our common-sense Conservative House leader, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, brought forward the motion because MPs' rights to get information for Canadians had been violated by the government's refusal to comply. Personally, I hate the use of the customary word “privilege” for such debates because, for me, what it is actually about is my duty as an elected representative and the rights of my constituents to know.

While it is sad to say, the scandals and cover-ups of the current government are no longer surprising. After nine years, the Liberals have shown shocking disregard for transparency and for adherence to the rule of law. It has never been more clear that the government, backed by its accomplices in the NDP, is not worth the cost or the government's corruption.

Of the billion dollars involved in scandals, nearly half is now in question for being distributed inappropriately. That is no small amount, especially when Canadians are struggling with historically high living costs and financial burdens because of the federal government's inflationary tax-and-spend agenda. The $400 million in tax dollars could have been used to aid vulnerable people, stop crime, build homes or fix the budget, or it could have been kept in the pockets of Canadians in the first place. Instead, the NDP-Liberal coalition is digging in to carry on its cover-up while blaming everyone else, as usual.

Five months ago, the independent Auditor General revealed that nearly half a billion of those tax dollars were funnelled by officials to their own companies through improperly awarded contracts. The AG found there were 186 conflicts of interest in the corrupt in-and-out scam among politically appointed senior government officials and superwealthy elites.

It is particularly appalling that during the six weeks of the NDP-Liberals' cover-up, Food Banks Canada's new report indicated that food bank use is record-high, worse than last year, which had already set a horrifying record. Two million Canadians are forced to go to food banks in just one month. The most heartbreaking part is that a third of the visits are by people desperate to feed children. This is all caused by the NDP-Liberals' inflationary taxes, spending and red tape.

St. Paul's food bank in Lakeland has served over 5,000 adults and nearly 4,000 children so far in 2024, in a town with fewer than 6,000 people. The Vermilion Food Bank struggles with a 7% increase in the number of adults and a 46% increase in the number of children it is supporting this year compared to last year. Food bank users report in conversations that the cost of food, housing, utilities, power, and fuel affects and hurts them the most. After nine years, the NDP-Liberals have made everything too expensive for everyone, while they are making out just fine for themselves.

Ten years ago, a headline from The New York Times read, “Life in Canada, Home of the World's Most Affluent Middle Class”. That was in 2014, under the former Conservative government, when Canada had the richest middle class in the world and the median income was higher than in the United States. Today, Canadian workers earn $34,000 less than their American counterparts after the Liberal tax hikes and economic vandalism.

What happened in 2015? The Liberals came to power. Today, they have hurt Canadians everywhere. Life has never been so difficult for everyday Canadians, but it has never been so good for rich, elite NDP-Liberal buddies and cronies.

It was only after the Prime Minister's hand-picked Liberal board members were installed that the slush fund began approving excessive amounts in tax dollars for itself while hiding the corrupt redirection to companies owned by board members. In fact, SDTC was deemed in good standing before the board members were appointed by the Liberals. Even though the Prime Minister was warned of the risks associated with appointing a conflicted chair, she was still appointed to chair the board, which did not even have the minimum number of members required by law.

It is really obvious that the government has lost its moral compass, that it knew there were conflicts of interest and that it was warned. It just did not care.

All of this could be resolved right now if any Liberal would stand up and announce that all documents Parliament has requested will be produced, but they will not. Instead, they distract, evade, divide and gaslight. The blindingly obvious question is why. Canadians can be forgiven for suspecting that they are full of details the Liberals want to hide. Canadians are rightfully concerned about all of this Liberal corruption.

Kyle from Lakeland said, “I'm absolutely horrified that people still put trust in this Liberal government. It's very hard for people to buy gas and groceries nowadays and I'm just absolutely upset.” Nick from Lakeland said, “Not only are Canadians fed up with [the Prime Minister] and his party's actions, they are losing faith in the very institutions of freedom and democracy, which are being made a mockery of by this government.”

It was the current Prime Minister who victoriously said in 2015, “Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways.... You want a Prime Minister who knows that if Canadians are to trust their government, their government needs to trust Canadians, a PM who understands that openness and transparency means better, smarter decisions.” After nine years, they are worse and dumber decisions, are they not? After nine years, a flailing PM and the Liberals are the opposite of everything they claimed.

This ongoing cover-up speaks to the very core of Canadian democracy and the accountability we owe to the people that each of us represent here. It is not just about some bureaucratic documents, it us not about some parliamentary procedure, it is about upholding the principles of good governance that are crucial to maintain already almost non-existent public trust in government and elected representatives.

The ongoing redactions and refusals to release key documents reveal much about the real character of the government and its allies. These are not the actions of people with nothing to hide. One of the worst offenders is, of course, the radical, previously arrested environment minister. He continues, even today, to profit off the corruption in his government's green slush fund. Cycle Capital received hundreds of millions of dollars from the slush fund, but the environment minister lobbied the Liberals on behalf of his company, Cycle Capital, nearly 25 times before he was elected in 2019. One of the Cycle Capital board members now admits to committee that several of her companies received millions of dollars from the slush fund while she sat on the board of the slush fund. Still today, the environment minister holds interests in Cycle Capital while it receives tax money. Talk about a conflict of interest.

No wonder the NDP-Liberals are working so hard to cover up this massive scandal. Of course, it is far from the first time the Liberals have breached Parliament's and government's rules. Take the Winnipeg lab scandal, where scientists gave a hostile regime classified information from Canada's top virus lab for foreign intervention. What was the Prime Minister's response to the House's demand for transparency? He chose to sue the Speaker to prevent disclosure and then called an election to try to get away with it all, even though the Speaker had formally reprimanded the Public Health Agency of Canada in an unprecedented act for a Speaker in nearly a century.

Then there's the net-zero accelerator, another costly Liberal sham that fails to deliver, just like almost every single thing they say on the environment. Similar to the Liberals' housing accelerator that does not actually build houses, the net-zero accelerator is not about proven emissions reduction. According to the environment commissioner, $8 billion was handed out to ineligible companies that lacked any real emissions reduction plans or outcomes. Only six months ago, his report highlighted that this money was “not part of any coherent...policy on decarbonization”. He reported that the vast majority of funded projects had no formal commitment to cut emissions by any specified amount.

Now, to no one's surprise, the Prime Minister's favourite new economic adviser, carbon tax Mark Carney, was also flagged in a potential conflict of interest with the government and his company Brookfield Asset Management, which could involve billions of Canadians' money. The Globe and Mail reports the government is in talks to give Brookfield $10 billion of Canadian tax money, where carbon tax Carney is the chair and holds $1 million in stock options. This screams conflict of interest, but once again the Prime Minister turns a blind eye because this kind of behaviour always starts at the top.

It is outrageous that the Prime Minister gave carbon tax Carney the position to advise on economic and fiscal policy when it does relate to the very company he chairs, but he has been shielded by it so that he will not have to declare his conflict of interest being a political adviser. It is clear that the Liberals know he is in a conflict of interest, but still appointed him and deliberately hide the facts from Canadians. That begs the question of how much he will personally profit from in his conflict of interest with Brookfield and the government. While that is obvious to all Canadians, the NDP and Liberals worked hard to protect him from answering questions at committee.

Despite what the Liberals claim, pushing for transparency is not a threat to privacy or due process. It is a call for accountability. Including the Privacy Commissioner and other officials in the investigation is a necessary step toward a fair and comprehensive review. Of course, this is all a recurring pattern. Time and again, information is kept from Canadians and the official opposition as the government prevents Conservatives from getting that information for Canadians about government fiscal mismanagement and scandals. Canadians deserve to know exactly what governments are doing with their money and exactly what the hell is going on here.

Unlike many officials, the Privacy Commissioner did provide unredacted documents and walked the talk on transparency that aligns with principles of public trust and accountability. This is notable as the Privacy Commissioner is perhaps the most qualified authority on the delicate balance between privacy and transparency. He knows the complexities and potential risks, but ultimately found it reasonable and responsible to release them in full. He signals a commitment to transparency and trustworthiness that is in stark contrast to the persistent opposition from the Liberal government.

The NDP-Liberals claim the release could infringe on privacy rights or cause other issues, while they themselves perpetuate harm to the public's trust. If the Privacy Commissioner, who is a literal expert in privacy rights, believes unredacted disclosures are appropriate, then it is fair and necessary to question the sincerity of the government's resistance.

There are whistle-blowers who have come forward to call out that blatant corruption. One said:

I think the current government is more interested in protecting themselves and protecting the situation from being a public nightmare. They would rather protect wrongdoers and financial mismanagement than have to deal with a situation like [the slush fund] in the public sphere.

Another said:

Just as I was always confident that the Auditor General would confirm the financial mismanagement...I remain equally confident that the RCMP will substantiate the criminal activities that occurred within the organization.

That is from a whistle-blower who was there.

If that was not damning enough, the whistle-blower said:

The true failure of the situation stands at the feet of our current government, whose decision to protect wrongdoers and cover up their findings...is a serious indictment of how our democratic systems and institutions are being corrupted by political interference. It should never...reach this point. What should have been a straightforward process turned into a bureaucratic nightmare that allowed SDTC to continue wasting millions of dollars and abusing countless employees over the last year.

The Auditor General found evidence that the Liberal slush fund handed out $58 million to projects without a promise that the terms for the money were actually met. Another $58 million went to 10 projects deemed ineligible as environmental benefits or green technology development could not even be proven. This should shock all Canadians, but that is a well-known pattern after nine years. Corruption runs deep.

Despite all the Liberals' claims, they repeatedly opt for secrecy over openness and avoidance over accountability. Their actual track record is a series of increasing scandals and corruption, where information is obscured, withheld or trickles out only after pressure from the opposition, the public or the media. In the last three years alone, it has reached a staggering level, no matter how much they scramble to cover it up. It is more clear than ever that the NDP-Liberals focus on protecting their own power and their own agendas instead of on serving Canadians.

The Liberals wail and flail to deflect and insist the RCMP should not get these unredacted documents and are willing to stop all of Parliament to distract from the fact that they do not want Canadians to see the information we deserve. The RCMP has already received redacted versions, so why not allow them access to the full unaltered documents?

Canadians should ask themselves why a government would so strongly resist if it has nothing to hide. If the truth is straightforward, then the solution is equally so. Release the unredacted documents. Every argument from the NDP-Liberals is smoke and mirrors, deflection, distraction, division and an attempt to defend indefensible actions, all a calculated strategy to justify actions that threaten the very foundations of our parliamentary democracy.

Common-sense Conservatives say that is why, among so many other reasons, Canadians deserve a carbon tax election so they can decide. The Liberals should call one if they have nothing to hide. This is not just a disagreement over documents, but an assault on Parliament's authority and an affront to the principles of transparency and accountability that our democracy is built on. All the men, women and their loved ones we are remembering during Remembrance Week fought and died for those values, those principles: the rule of law, democracy and accountability. That is what is at stake here. That is what this is all about.

It has never been more clear that after nine years, the Liberals' corruption, chaos and crime are just not worth the cost. They are happening because the Prime Minister has engaged in what can only be described as economic vandalism, with punishing taxes and reckless spending driving Canada's decline. That trust fund multi-millionaire uses taxes like his own personal piggy bank for himself and his rich cronies, but after nine years, the Liberals have caused the steepest decline in living standards seen in the past four decades.

Canadians are facing an unprecedented housing crisis, the sharpest drop in income per person and the lowest economic growth against OECD countries, and, make no mistake, the NDP-Liberals will continue to just make it worse.

What Canadians are experiencing is not a coincidence; it is a direct result of all the NDP-Liberal policies that have enabled corruption, mismanagement and a lack of transparency.

It is MPs' fundamental job to represent the Canadian people. We are elected to this place not for our own political or personal gain or advancement or titles but to represent the concerns and the needs of the people who send us here and who make this country so great. Therefore, as we honour those brave Canadians who fought and sacrificed so much for our freedoms, and all their loved ones who sacrificed right along with them, we must recommit ourselves to upholding the principles that they defended.

Those courageous individuals did not just fight for our borders. They fought to safeguard the values that define Canada: freedom, democracy, the rule of law and justice. Today and every day, it is our duty to protect those values by demanding transparency and accountability from government.

It is not just about good governance either. It is about ensuring that the freedoms that serving military members and veterans secure at great cost are not taken for granted and are not eroded. We owe it to those who served, and to the generations who will follow, to ensure that Canada remains a nation, or can become again a nation, where truth, integrity and justice prevail.

Let us never forget that the peace and comfort we enjoy are hard won. It is our sacred obligation to remember, and it is our responsibility to uphold the principles for which so many Canadians gave and give their lives. By doing so, we honour their memory, not just in words, but in actions.

The Liberals need to stop the cover-up. They need to hand over the evidence. They need to let Parliament get back to working on behalf of all Canadians. If they have nothing to hide, they should call a carbon tax election to let Canadians decide to end wasteful spending, restore accountability and bring home transparency to Ottawa, because all Canadians by now know that only common-sense Conservatives will work to turn hurt into hope, to axe the tax, to build the homes, to fix the budget and to stop the crime.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member mentioned the experiences Canadians are having. Let me talk about that. Due to global inflation, Canadians have faced a lot of cost of living increases and affordability issues. While the Conservatives wanted us to have austerity measures, we continue to invest in Canadians, and our actions, our programs and our policies have helped Canadians. Inflation has come down to a historic low of 1.6%. The Canadian consumer price index has risen to a 30-month high. Interest rates have been cut four times. The stock exchange, where a lot of Canadians invest, which lost in 2022, year to date has made 18%.

Canadians did face a lot of issues due to global inflation, and our actions have brought back economic prosperity. Going forward, we are going to look much better, so that the IMF has projected that Canada will be the best-performing economy among all G7 countries. I would like to have the member's opinion on that.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Madam Speaker, the member of Parliament seems like a very kind gentleman, and I appreciate his demeanour in the House of Commons, which is certainly one that I cannot claim to have, and the way in which he made his comments. However, I would just say that it is exactly that kind of answer that Canadians watch and that makes them think elected people, particularly government members, literally have no idea what is going on in their real lives. He can rattle off a bunch of cherry-picked stats in the context that he wants to have them, but every single day, Canadians are losing hope for their futures.

Every single day, young people know they are staring down a future that, for the first time in Canadian history, looks worse than it did for the generations before theirs. Every single day, people are making choices between essentials that they need and that are not luxuries in our big, cold country. They are deciding between food and how to heat their homes, whether they can drive, whether they can take their kids to any kind of recreational activity and whether they have a little extra to support their senior relatives. People cannot find jobs. They cannot find homes. This is what is actually going on in the everyday lives of Canadians, and I just think it is answers like that member's that show exactly why, in the next election, if given the chance, Canadians are going to say that time is up.

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

Madam Speaker, we are talking about $400 million in the green slush fund. Liberal insiders got rich by voting to give themselves money at a time when the government is, once again, waging war on the western economy.

I know the member has some very strong feelings about the energy industry. We even heard about some of the things today in question period, just nonsense from the other side about the effects of their policies on the economy in her riding and in my province.

While they are forcing us to debate their own conflict of interest and refusal to table documents ordered by the House, would she care to comment on that?

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member is an incredible advocate for fiscal sanity, common sense and actions actually matching words. He is an advocate for the energy sector and the oil and gas workers, not just in Alberta but in every single part of this country. They help fuel and power our country, and we need them more than ever.

The member is exactly right. Nine years of coercive chaos and corruption, increasing crime and scandals have Canadians wondering exactly what the heck is going on here. It is also nine years of layers of patterns of anti-energy policies, taxes and laws that have driven billions of dollars into the United States, including jobs, money and technology.

The Liberals' latest wacko plan to be the first among all oil and gas-producing jurisdictions in the world to cap oil and gas in our country helps the United States. It will send even more jobs, money, investment, technology and talent there. The truth is it helps despotic regimes, regimes that are hostile to Canada and to Canadians.

The worst part is, exactly as he said, that all of these things together have gotten Canadians to the point where they cannot find jobs, do not have hope for their future and cannot pay their bills. It is all exactly because of these policies.

Whether these guys like it or not, despite how much they have tried, the oil and gas sector remains the leading private sector investor in the Canadian economy right now. It remains Canada's biggest export. It remains the driver of jobs of all the other sectors right across this whole country, and it remains the main employer of indigenous and visible minority Canadians, who ought to be able to rely on the sustainability of their powerful paycheques long into the future.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Madam Speaker, when I grow up, I want to speak just like my hon. colleague from Lakeland. She speaks beautifully.

The member mentioned crime, and I know she listened to the heartfelt story of my constituent, Stephanie, whose colleague's little boy watched as his father was shot. He felt guilty because he could not protect his father. The crime in this country has gotten out of control.

Could the member speak to what Conservatives would do when we take government to ensure that all criminals are kept behind bars?

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Madam Speaker, I thank my powerful, compassionate, joyful, loving colleague from King—Vaughan.

I was moved and appalled by the experience that she talked about last night. The worst part is that it is becoming common; violent crimes, crimes by gangsters, drive-by shootings, kidnappings, violent thefts and robberies have all skyrocketed, by more than 100%, since the Liberals took office.

That is why Conservatives believe in jail, not bail, and cracking down on gangsters, as well as illegal drug and criminal trafficking. That is why we believe in putting the rights of victims and innocent Canadians first. We believe that a government's highest priority must be protecting public safety, as well as ensuring that vulnerable and innocent Canadians can live in peace, safety and security in neighbourhoods right across Canada. This is instead of the appalling violence in our biggest cities and the crime in rural areas that grows more brazen. All of that is a consequence of the Liberals' woke, hug-a-thug, soft-on-crime agenda.

If Canadians make a different choice in the next election, we will stop the crime.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the thoughtful speech by my colleague from Lakeland. I would be interested in her insights and perspective on the message the government is sending to Canadians. It is punishing them with its carbon tax on everything, while the Prime Minister jet-sets across the country for vacations and photo ops, and does nothing to help Canadians who are struggling just to feed themselves and their families and to put enough gas in the car to get to work. All the while, the Liberals are lining the pockets of insiders, as we have seen in this $400-million scandal where they are refusing to turn over documents to the RCMP. It is absolutely egregious. It shows that the current government, after nine years, is not worth the cost and the corruption.

It is getting cold outside. Canadians are worried about how they will be able to heat their homes. What is the message it sends when the Prime Minister and carbon tax Carney are jet-setting around the world while Canadians are forced to pay a punishing carbon tax that does nothing to reduce emissions?

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Madam Speaker, is that eloquent, articulate, powerful colleague not exactly right on? That is what is so disgusting: these high-flying, high-carbon hypocrites bringing in tax after tax and ban after ban and punishment after punishment to make it so Canadians cannot afford to heat, house, fuel, power or drive themselves, especially, as the member just said, as our big northern country heads right into winter.

The worst part is that the Prime Minister and the sellout leader of the NDP are really rich. These guys are the super elite. They have been that their whole lives and still are now, yet their policy agenda has hollowed out the middle class and hurts vulnerable and low-income Canadians the most. All those reasons are also exactly why Canadians need a carbon tax election so common-sense Conservatives could come in and fix the budget and help turn hurt into hope for all the people in all the communities that nine years of the NDP-Liberals have damaged.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Madam Speaker, I think at this time the interpreters may get a bit of a break in the speed of the discussion, which might be nice going into the weekend.

I want to quickly say, as I am the last speaker today, that with Remembrance Week and Remembrance Day, it is important for all of us to pay tribute and make sure we attend services. To everyone watching, I am very fortunate to have Base Borden in Simcoe-Gray. Not only do I represent all the people there, but I represent the largest training base. The military is an important part of our community, and not just for what its members do in the military, but for what they do for all of us citizens and civilians, whether it is by volunteering for hockey teams, baseball teams or whatever else. Hopefully, everyone has an opportunity to go to one of those services.

I am pleased to rise today to speak to the amended motion concerning the Liberal green slush fund. Known to some as Sustainable Development Technology Canada, this fund has become arguably the biggest transfer of contracts and tax dollars to Liberal friends since the sponsorship scandal, which toppled the Paul Martin government. However, there is one fundamental difference between then and now: It was not as hard to make ends meet back in 2004.

While Liberals rewarding their friends is nothing new, back in 2004 people just saw it as business as usual. In 2004, yearly inflation was 1.27%. Most people had jobs, and this allowed them to pay their bills and save for a vacation and for their future and children's future. The Liberals' waste was frustrating, definitely, but that is just how Liberals do business. People were not struggling as they watched Liberals line their friends' pockets with tax dollars back then.

Let us fast-forward to 2024 to see how things have changed. We have tent cities in the major centres, and now they are even in small towns in my riding. Crime rates have soared. Daily essentials are no longer affordable since double-digit inflation has driven up the price of almost everything. It is difficult to save for family vacations. Liberals here in the House even mock Canadians' desire for a great summer road trip. It is near impossible to save for retirement or to put money away for our children's future.

A good government would do whatever it could to lower the cost of living for its citizens, but we do not have a good government here in Canada. The Liberal-NDP government instead raises taxes and takes more money from all of us, making it harder and harder for a regular middle-class family to get ahead. It takes all that money and hands some of it back to certain targeted groups, and then screams that Conservatives are going to all of a sudden take it all away. This is how Liberals operate: take from everyone and then throw some pennies out to Canadians and have them fight it out among themselves. “Tax, divide and conquer” is the ethos of today's Liberal Party.

However, Canadians, now more than ever, see through this strategy. Canadians who have done everything they were told to do are finally fed up. Getting an education, working hard, being honest, obeying the law, paying taxes and then being rewarded seems like a quaint idea. Instead, Canadians watch more and more of their paycheques get taken by a federal Liberal-NDP government that continues to get bigger while it spends their hard-earned money on pet projects and sweetheart deals for its friends.

In 2004, Liberal corruption and mismanagement annoyed Canadians. In 2024, it has made them angry. The most surprising thing about this is that Liberal-NDP government members seem to be in shock as to why Canadians are so angry.

When I last spoke to the green slush fund a couple weeks ago, I outlined that this was just another in a long line of Liberal scandals. There was WE Charity and the billion dollars it was given after hiring the Prime Minister's brother and mother. There was SNC-Lavalin, which had the Prime Minister personally intervening to help it get out of fraud charges for the low cost of $100,000 in donations to the Liberal Party. There was also the Aga Khan scandal, which saw the Prime Minister, the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, the member for St. John's South—Mount Pearl and their families get a $271,000 vacation in exchange for $50 million in tax dollars.

We cannot forget the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation taking money from a Beijing-connected billionaire in exchange for future considerations from the Communist government. I barely even got to touch on the $237 million that former Liberal MP Frank Baylis got for ventilators, which may not have even been delivered, or GC Strategies, which got $20 million to build the arrive scam, which was supposed to only cost $80,000.

Most Canadians are not better off after nine years of Liberal corruption and mismanagement but their insiders and friends are way better off, friends like the environment minister's former boss, the founder and owner of Cycle Capital, Andrée-Lise Méthot. While Ms. Méthot sat on the board of the green slush fund, she helped herself to $114 million in tax dollars, which she funnelled to companies she had invested in. Her then-senior adviser, the current Minister of the Environment, had 25 meetings with the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of Industry to help seal the deal. Ms. Méthot says her company tripled in value during this time. We know that the environment minister remains a shareholder in this company to this day. He will not say how much he owns but he certainly has personally benefited from this overt corruption.

It may be hard to believe for many of us but the environment minister was actually a very wanted commodity by the federal Liberals in 2019. How better to demonstrate our adherence to the climate change agenda than by recruiting one of the most radical environmentalists out there? Despite some association with Quebec separatists and his public support for socialism, the Liberal Party was desperate to improve its image among eco-activists, so landing the present environment minister was a challenge the Prime Minister relished, but what did it cost?

How many of the 25 meetings were also about recruiting the environment minister to run for the Liberal Party? What was the price to get a rumoured separatist and committed socialist to become part of the pipeline-owning Liberal government?

Canadians are frustrated. They are frustrated because, in Canada, for the longest time, we were told that if we work hard, we will get ahead, and that if we work hard and pay our taxes, we will be taken care of when we retire, but those promises have been broken. After nine years of the Liberal government, the Canada so many of us grew up in is gone. People are working harder than ever before. The price of housing and the commute to get to work have grown while the wages of the working people have stagnated in Canada. What is worse, the Liberal government has overseen the biggest increase in the cost of living since another Trudeau was prime minister.

Under the Liberals, we pay more for groceries. We pay more for gas, for our home, for our family, and we drive longer to get to our job but since our wage has likely not increased much and the cost of everything has skyrocketed, our quality of life and the time we enjoy with our family have declined. This is a reality for many Canadians as they watch Liberals, their friends and insiders get multi-million dollar contracts and sweetheart perks they can only imagine.

Every day I get people in my riding either phoning or emailing the office saying how frustrated they are or how hard it is to get by. I say “to get by” because that is all. They have given up on getting ahead under the government; they just want to get by.

I think of people like Carolyn, a senior in my riding. Carolyn turned 65 in March. She had been collecting CPP and expected to automatically receive OAS after her 65th birthday as her husband had. When May came and she had not received anything, she contacted Service Canada. She was told it does not necessarily start automatically for some people and that she needed to apply. Carolyn completed her application and submitted it. She was told that it would take over 100 days to process, so she waited.

Over 100 days, in fact, she waited and nothing: crickets. She contacted Service Canada again and again, only to be told that she had missed completing one small section in her application. No one ever thought to tell her. Despite 100,000 new bureaucrats being hired since the Liberals took office, over 100 days went by and not one person at the Government of Canada thought it might be a good idea to reach out and let her know. She was told to start over, apply again and wait 100 more days. There was no “let's fill that section out together” or “let me fill it in for you” or “apply again, but we'll process it immediately because it's already been 100 days.”

She applied again from scratch, but she also contacted my office shortly thereafter to let us know how ridiculous this whole process was. We pushed on her behalf. Now she will be getting her arrears in five days, and regular payments will start at the end of this month.

We have lots of stories like this about the frustration of dealing with the biggest, most expensive government in Canadian history. Carolyn faced an unresponsive bureaucracy for months to get the few hundred bucks she was entitled to as a senior, while Liberal friends and insiders continued to get millions of dollars in contracts and zero accountability. That is really why people are so frustrated.

What about people like Travis in my riding? Travis works hard. He pays his taxes. Travis is proud of his family. Travis has lived in Angus since 1996 and in the same home since 2007. Recently, though, there has been a lot of growth in this area, with many new developments taking place as people have left Toronto for slightly more affordable properties, and obviously better federal representation, and moved to Simcoe—Grey.

There has been so much growth that Canada Post had to change postal codes. Inexplicably, it was the existing residents who were given new postal codes, instead of the people moving into the new developments. What is worse is that, when these residents began updating their new postal codes with their insurance companies, their rates jumped. In Travis's case, his home insurance went up 50% and his car went up 50% as well. That seemed bizarre, so my office investigated it further. It turns out the new postal codes put long-time rural residents like Travis into what is now considered an urban postal code.

Because crime is now out of control in our cities, thanks to the Liberals' soft-on-crime policies, insurance rates have skyrocketed. If we are lucky enough to have what is considered an urban postal code, our rates will have jumped as well, even if we are in the same house for many years. Since Canada Post is about as accountable as the Liberal government, Travis was stuck trying to appeal this rip-off to the ombudsman, but even they could not help.

There are hundreds of people in my riding who have faced that this year. I have been bombarded with calls because their insurance went up, but they have not moved. It is ridiculous right now because people are having a tough time getting by. It has been extremely frustrating and expensive, and it has been a hassle for all these hard-working people just trying to get ahead. All the while, Liberal insiders are getting millions of dollars, no questions asked.

Liberal members pretend to be outraged as to why we are still talking about this matter. How dare opposition members take them to task over corruption and complete mismanagement? It is because of people like Travis and Carolyn, who play by the rules but have a harder and harder time getting ahead.

How about Colleen, another constituent of mine in Simcoe—Grey? She contacted my office back in March when the CRA sent her notice that she had an $8,000 debt dating back to 2017 for benefits she was not entitled to. CRA took issue with the fact that Colleen had said she was separated but was still living in the same house with her former partner. Life is really expensive for Canadians post-COVID, but even in 2017, it was difficult for those going through a divorce or a separation to get a new home.

Colleen took the advice of her lawyer and, for financial reasons, remained in the lower level of the house until it could be sold. The sale took a year. Colleen is not the only person who has faced this sort of situation. I am sure some of the members in the House are aware of similar cases.

Colleen and her husband's separation was documented as of May 1, 2017. They began separate lives. They even had separate schedules to use the one kitchen in the home. Oddly, while the CRA came after her demanding $8,000 in payments, it accepted the date of separation for her now ex-husband, who was living at the same address.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Having reached the expiry of the time provided for today's debate, the House will resume consideration of the privilege motion at 11 a.m. on Monday, November 18.

Pursuant to Standing Order 94, I wish to inform hon. members that Private Members' Business will be suspended on that day.

It being 2:30 p.m., the House stands adjourned until Monday, November 18, at 11 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 28(2) and 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 2:30 p.m.)