Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the hard-working people of Flamborough—Glanbrook, who are struggling with the cost of living challenges, as are millions of Canadians across the country. Families are grappling with the skyrocketing cost of groceries, with rising interest rates on their mortgages, rents that have more than doubled since a decade ago and, of course, a jump in the gas price every time the carbon tax goes up. These are the real, tangible struggles Canadians and people in Flamborough—Glanbrook are facing every day.
Amid these struggles, Canadians are learning more and more about yet another Liberal scandal through this debate. They are upset because they work hard for the tax dollars they send to this place and to the Government of Canada, and that money is clearly being wasted on mismanagement, insider deals and flagrant conflicts of interest.
They know that the $400 million in the SDTC scandal did not go to green technologies or innovations that will create jobs as the program was intended to do; rather, it went to those with Liberal connections. I would note that this is almost half a billion dollars. Canadians know it is part of a pattern with the Liberals.
We can contrast this with the case of a senior I spoke with about a month or so ago. He told me that, despite the good pension he receives from his years of work with a utility, he just had to take a part-time job to help make ends meet, to buy groceries. Grocery prices continue to rise because of the carbon tax. Of course, seniors on a fixed income are hit hardest by this. This is what makes the $400 million in the Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund scandal so egregious.
This is not just a story of bad accounting; it is a story of betrayal. The SDTC fund was created with a noble purpose: to drive innovation, to support small businesses, to invest in sustainable technologies that could help Canada actually meet its emissions targets. This is unlike the carbon tax, which is only a tax grab and a tax plan. Instead, this program has become a glaring example of government mismanagement and misplaced priorities.
The Auditor General's investigation uncovered 186 conflicts of interest connected to SDTC, involving millions of dollars being funnelled to businesses tied to senior Liberal officials. This is not just negligence; it is systemic. The 186 conflicts of interest identified by the Auditor General are what we know about thus far. Surely, more conflicts will be identified in what has yet to be reviewed once these documents are released unredacted. The government needs to turn over the unredacted documents to the RCMP as asked by Parliament, the majority of members in this place.
Corruption does not just happen in a vacuum. It thrives where accountability is weak, where oversight is lacking and where governments forget their fundamental responsibility to the people they serve. The government's repeated ethical failures are not just individual lapses; they are symptoms of a deeper problem, a culture that prioritizes insiders and political optics over transparency and fairness.
It is taxpayer money being used to fund ineligible projects. These projects failed to meet basic criteria, overstated their environmental benefits or, worse, delivered no measurable outcomes at all. Can we believe that?
Four hundred million dollars is not just a number. It represents real opportunities lost. It could have been used to equip hospitals with life-saving MRI machines. It could have been used to strengthen our border, to stop the flow of illegal guns that are threatening communities such as mine. I hear about this every day.
That $400 million could have gone toward supporting small businesses, helping them to adapt in what is clearly an increasingly challenging economy. Imagine if the wasted $400 million had been invested in infrastructure, repairing the aging bridges and roads that Canadians depend on every day. These are not just luxuries. These are lifelines for families to commute to work, for businesses to transport goods and for communities to stay connected. Instead, these funds were squandered, leaving Canadians to contend with potholes and gridlock while Liberal insiders reap the rewards
However, the SDTC scandal is not just a story of waste; it is also one of trust. Canadians are supposed to trust their government to act responsibly, to manage their tax dollars with care and to prioritize the public good, but with every scandal, that trust is eroded. When Parliament demanded transparency and demanded unredacted documents related to this scandal, the Liberal government's response was silence and then refusal, a blatant disregard for the will of Parliament and the trust of Canadians. That is why we are here again today continuing to debate this motion. The government could simply turn over the documents unredacted, which is what this Parliament, the majority of us members here, the representatives of the people who sent us to this place, asked for in June.
I remember when the Prime Minister said, “sunshine is the [world's] best disinfectant”. What a stark difference after nine years. The consequences of this scandal strike to the very core of what it means to govern with integrity and accountability. Unfortunately, the mismanagement seen in the SDTC scandal is not an exception. Rather, it is emblematic of a troubling trend within the government.
Time and time again, we have witnessed decisions that prioritize political optics over meaningful outcomes, leaving Canadians to bear the cost. Nowhere is this pattern more evident than in the carbon tax, a policy that claims to address climate change but in reality disproportionately burdens Canadians while doing little to deliver tangible results. The senior I spoke to pays the price of that carbon tax, but we know, because just recently there was a report that Canada continues to be 62nd out of 67 countries in meeting our emissions targets, that the carbon tax is not an environment plan. It is a tax plan.
It is a tax, and since the carbon tax drives up prices across the board and fuels the cost of living crisis, it is even worse than that. Canadians are justifiably angry when they see this SDTC scandal and they see the Liberal government continue to tax them more and more, while Liberal insiders get away with lining their pockets through a government program. Canadians are footing the bill, and they are tired of footing the bill. The government continues to show its true priorities: protecting insiders, evading accountability and perpetuating a cycle of waste, mismanagement and corruption.
Let us talk about what the government's refusal to release documents related to the SDTC scandal really means. When Parliament demands transparency, it is exercising its duty to uphold accountability on behalf of the people who elected us, yet the government has chosen to ignore those demands. The Speaker of the House has ruled that parliamentary privilege was violated. This is not a minor infraction. This is a blatant disregard for the democratic process.
What does the government have to hide? That certainly is the question that it begs. What are the Liberals so afraid of revealing in these documents? Canadians deserve to know the truth because they are paying the bills. They deserve to see how their hard-earned money is being spent.
The refusal to release the documents is not just a violation of privilege; it is also an insult to every Canadian who pays taxes and to every Canadian who expects integrity and accountability from their leaders. When a government wastes public funds, the impact is not just financial; it is also personal for Canadians. It undermines their confidence that their tax dollars are being used to create opportunities, to solve problems and to build a better future, and it deepens the frustration of the people who are already struggling to make ends meet.
Since we are on the topic of tax dollars being wasted, and the findings of the Auditor General, there was another example yesterday in the Auditor General's report on the CEBA loans during the pandemic. The report says that another $3.5 billion was mismanaged by the Liberals. The Auditor General found that over 77,000 recipients of the Canada emergency business account program went to businesses that did not meet the eligibility requirements. That was another $3.5 billion in wasteful spending by the government.
It is no wonder that I hear from constituents in Waterdown, Binbrook, Mount Hope and in all of the communities throughout Flamborough—Glanbrook who are renewing their mortgage. Maybe they were on a fixed-term mortgage that has come up for renewal, or maybe they are on a variable mortgage. They are seeing higher interest rates. That, of course, has a huge impact when their monthly or biweekly payment is going to be more. It has a massive impact on their household budget.
I remind constituents that this is the impact of government overspending, because we know from major banks that 2% of the interest rate increases, and therefore obviously 2% of the mortgage rate increases, is attributable to government overspending. Whether it is increased taxes or increased interest rates, it is Canadians who are paying the price when the Liberals try to sweep scandals like SDTC under the rug and continue the cover-up. People who are renewing mortgages in the communities in my riding pay the price.
What is worse is that when governments waste tax dollars and evade transparency, they weaken the public's faith in our institutions. Accountability is not just a political talking point; it is the foundation of our healthy democracy. We must recommit ourselves to the values that Canadians hold dear: honesty, fairness and respect for the public trust, respect for tax dollars and the work that goes into providing them. The scandal represents more than just an ethical lapse; it is also a betrayal of the trust of Canadians in their government. It sends a dangerous message that accountability is optional, that rules are for others and that people in power can operate with impunity.
Sadly, this is not the first time we have seen this kind of behaviour from the Liberal government. It is part of a disturbing pattern. We can think back to the WE Charity scandal, where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were funnelled into an organization with deep connections to the Prime Minister's family, or to the SNC-Lavalin affair, where senior officials attempted to interfere in a criminal prosecution to protect a politically connected corporation.
More recently, we can think back to the ArriveCAN app, which we know could have been produced by a couple of smart people in a basement, maybe over a case of beer. It started with an initial price tag of $80,000 but ballooned to an over $60-million fiasco. That is the amount we know about thus far; it could be more. The fiasco exposed yet another example of the government's inability or unwillingness to manage taxpayer dollars responsibly.
Of course, as my other colleagues have brought up, let us not forget about the Winnipeg lab cover-up. The government chose to prorogue Parliament rather than allow Canadians to know what really transpired in that lab. Time and time again, we see the government prioritize secrecy over accountability, insiders over taxpayers and political survival over the public good.
Let us also not forget that it was the ad scam scandal in the early 2000s that resulted in the Gomery inquiry that would eventually bring down the Liberal government of that day. It is worth noting that scandal involved $40 million. Today we are talking about the SDTC scandal that involves $400 million. It is ten times the size, yet the refusal to provide the documents is treated so casually. A $40-million scandal brought down a government. Today there is a $400-million scandal and a refusal to release the documents to the RCMP, as Parliament has ordered.
What was true then, in the early 2000s with ad scam, is true today. It is the same question: What do the Liberals have to hide? In each of these scandals I have mentioned, we see the same playbook: waste, secrecy and a refusal to be held accountable. Canadians who pay taxes are tired of it. They are tired of a government that prioritizes insiders over taxpayers, seeing the money they worked so hard for squandered on projects and programs that deliver little benefit. They are tired of bearing the cost of the government's failures through policies like the carbon tax and other taxes that are levied to pay for these wasteful spending. These unnecessary taxes, coupled with scandals like SDTC, create a perfect storm of financial strain and shattered trust. Canadians are left wondering, if the government can waste $400 million with no consequences, why should they believe any tax revenue is being used responsibly? It is not just about dollars and cents; it is about trust in government, leadership and the very institutions that are supposed to serve the people. When Canadians see a government that refuses to release the documents, hides behind excuses and repeatedly puts its friends and allies ahead of public good, that trust is eroded.
The impact of this serious erosion goes beyond politics and affects the very fabric of our democracy. It undermines the belief that government exists to serve the people, not the other way around. The government had the opportunity to do the right thing. It could have chosen transparency, acknowledged its mistakes and taken steps to rebuild trust. It could have released those documents, unredacted. It still can, but instead it continues to choose secrecy and defiance, further deepening the divide between itself and the Canadians it is supposed to represent. The cost of this distrust is more than just political; it leads to disengagement, skepticism and a growing belief that government itself is incapable of serving the public interest, which is why accountability and integrity matter. It is also why the Conservative Party will not stop fighting to restore these values to government. We will continue to demand answers, to hold the government accountable and to ensure the voices of Canadians are heard in the House.
The time for excuses is over. The time for accountability is now. It is not just about addressing one scandal, but addressing the culture of entitlement and mismanagement that has plagued the government for far too long. Canadians deserve better. They deserve a government that respects their hard-earned dollars, prioritizes their needs and upholds the principles of democracy and accountability. Conservatives stand ready to deliver that kind of leadership.