Mr. Speaker, I move that the 18th report of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, presented on Monday, November 25, be concurred in.
It is my honour to stand here today. I will be sharing my time with the member for Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock.
The Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs wants to embark on a study to see the appearance of the member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre. The report states:
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, November 21, 2024, your committee has agreed to report the following:
That the committee report to the House that the MP for Edmonton Centre appear before the committee for two hours independently by Friday, December 6, 2024, immediately following the completion and reporting back of C-61 to the House, and that the report is tabled by the Chair in the House as soon as possible and no later than Monday, November 25, 2024.
The reason we are going through this important report is that the former minister, the member for Edmonton Centre, needs to come clean about his actions. We have all heard about the other Randy story, as GHI, a company he co-owned, was bidding on government contracts. He claimed he was not, but it came out that he actually was. He also claimed to be of indigenous heritage when he is not. Moreover, his company was falsely bidding on indigenous contracts, but his company is not indigenous.
A recent article in the news states:
Alberta MP [from Edmonton Centre] has resigned from cabinet amid allegations about his business dealings and criticism of his shifting claims about his Indigenous ancestry.
“The prime minister and [the MP for Edmonton Centre] have agreed that [the MP] will step away from cabinet effective immediately. [The MP for Edmonton Centre] will focus on clearing the allegations made against him,” a spokesperson for [the] Prime Minister...said in a statement.
This is why it is so important that the former minister appear at the INAN committee. Previous to that, he was scheduled to appear as minister. The NDP-Liberal government has tried to say that, since he is no longer a sitting minister, he does not need to appear at committee to answer the allegations made against him.
That is simply unacceptable. It does not change that he was a long-serving member of the corrupt NDP-Liberal government and that there are three very significant issues he needs to answer for to the Canadian public, and most of all, to indigenous communities. One thing colleagues of mine in the House have really highlighted is that impersonating an indigenous person or an indigenous company is a severe offence. It is fraudulent, and it is something that is just simply not acceptable for anybody in Canada, let alone a sitting minister of the NDP-Liberal government.
We have also heard that the NDP-Liberals are trying to do something to obfuscate, and that is to have the former minister appear but do it with all the current and relevant ministers to INAN at the same time. That would swamp the meeting, with three ministers and the member for Edmonton Centre appearing all at once. We are asking and calling on the former minister to appear individually to answer questions on what he is done. Simply put, the amount of time he will have at committee will be well used to appear individually, at least for an hour, if not longer, to try to answer some of the allegations made against him.
It is a concern for Canadians across the country. We spoke about the green slush fund before and this corruption within the front benches. Again, it is not just the odd allegation here and there. It is corruption at the highest level from sitting ministers of the government. It was only recently, just a few weeks ago, that the former minister was cut loose, as the news article stated. He held on for many months. The Prime Minister kept him in his spot, regardless of the allegations. More allegations started to pop up as a result, and it got even worse as the member was allowed to remain in his minister's chair. I give credit to my colleagues for putting pressure on the former minister. It was said that the Prime Minister asked him to step down or resign, or however anyone wants to phrase it. It was really after the opposition, the Conservatives on this side, caused so much pressure with the Prime Minister and Canadians across the country.
It is even reflected in the polls. When we look at the polls across the country, the Liberals and the NDP are really struggling because of these kinds of allegations.
It is not as though they deal with allegations quickly. They deal with them after months and months of pressure, of people watching videos on YouTube and social media, asking why the minister is still sitting when he is under this cloud of allegations and suspicion around some pretty significant issues. Impersonating an indigenous person in Canada, and doing so as a sitting minister, is really beyond the pale.
This is why it is necessary for the member for Edmonton Centre to come to committee. He needs to give his responses to the questions from our members. This needs to happen with a full meeting, not as an attachment with a bunch of other ministers there getting asked questions at the same time. We are asking for him to appear as an individual.
Canadians and indigenous people across the country deserve to have him answer for what he has done and maybe clarify what he was trying to do with what ended up happening, what the allegations are. He has spoken many times in the House, and he has never been able to get out of the shadow of these allegations. As I said before, the cloud has gotten darker over him, whether in terms of the other Randy, GHI as a co-owned company or bidding on government contracts as a sitting minister.
We just spoke about it at length for 20 minutes. The sitting Minister of Environment was doing the exact same thing. It is a sad state of affairs when this acceptable corruption is in the front benches of the NDP-Liberals today. We look forward to getting a chance to ask some tough questions of the former minister. It was the Prime Minister who said, “sunny ways.” I think we all remember that from 2015. The best thing for integrity of the system is to shine a light, to have no secrets. This was the Prime Minister's saying. He talks about slogans of ours; “sunny ways” was his slogan. Where has that gone today? All we have is government cover-up after cover-up.
The Speaker is even challenging the government to produce unredacted documents to the green slush fund. It is not just that we are trying to shine a light on some of these accusations of a current minister and the current Prime Minister, but it needs to actually see the light of day. We need to see the minister in the INAN committee. He needs to answer for the serious allegations against him. I think indigenous people across the country and Canadians at large are expecting that.
How could a sitting minister so obviously do things that are fraudulent and keep being able to do so for as long as he was? It was only after relentless pressure from the Conservative Party on this side, as well as facts that just kept churning up as time went on that, finally, as the article said, “The prime minister and the MP [for Edmonton Centre] agreed that [the MP] will step away from cabinet effective immediately.”
It is a challenge for him to actually do this. In the article, it said the MP from Edmonton Centre “will focus on clearing the allegations made against him”, as “a spokesperson for [the] Prime Minister...said in a statement”. Here is a great opportunity to do exactly that as an individual: clearing the allegations against him.