Madam Speaker, I have breaking news. Tomorrow morning, at the indigenous affairs committee, at 8:15 a.m., the member for Edmonton Centre, the former Liberal minister, not the other Randy, but the member for Edmonton Centre, is going to be coming to committee. I cannot guarantee he will answer questions, but he will respond to questions from Conservative members about the Liberals' indigenous procurement scandal and the factors that led to his resignation from cabinet.
I will be there, at 8:15 a.m., at the indigenous and northern affairs committee. I know my colleague from Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, our capable indigenous affairs critic, will be there. I know the member for St. Albert—Edmonton will be there. There is another member from Ontario, whose riding has the word “lake” in it, who will be there, as well as the member for Kenora.
This will be an important event because we have been trying to get the member for Edmonton Centre to come before committee to answer questions about the scandal. He will finally be there, and we will put to him the harm that has been done by false claims of indigenous identity.
Here is the scandal we are dealing with: The government says that over 5% of contracts go to indigenous firms, but the Assembly of First Nations says that it is closer to 1%. In other words, the majority of those benefiting from this indigenous procurement program are shell companies. There are shell companies and shady joint venture arrangements that allow non-indigenous companies to take the vast majority of the benefit, and there are outright pretenders, such as the member for Edmonton Centre, who, through their companies, are taking advantage of programs that were intended for indigenous people.
This is an overwhelming situation of abuse by non-indigenous elites and insiders, such as the member for Edmonton Centre. The member for Edmonton Centre, during the period when he was not a member of Parliament, set up a company, and that company claimed to be fully indigenous-owned to try to get contracts from the government. It did get some contracts from the government, but the company made the claim to be fully indigenous-owned.
Incredibly, the former minister says that he did not know and it was his wild partner making these claims. Why did the former minister's partner think the company was indigenous-owned? Maybe it is because the Liberal Party of Canada repeatedly and falsely claimed that the member for Edmonton Centre was indigenous. There is a proliferation of those pretending to be indigenous. According to the AFN and other indigenous leaders, there is a massive scale of indigenous identity fraud, as these non-indigenous elite insiders try to take contracts and steal benefits that were supposed to be for indigenous people.
Meanwhile, not a single firm has ever faced consequences for indigenous identity fraud. The Liberals have set up a system where, instead of the indigenous communities themselves doing so, the government controls the list of what is considered an indigenous business, which many have called a colonial system. The government set up a system where it controls who is on that list. Many people made it on that list, or otherwise bid on contracts, falsely claiming to be indigenous. There have been zero consequences for anyone, including the former minister, who still continues to be a member of the Liberal caucus and still claims his innocence.
I invite others to tune in at 8:15 a.m. eastern time tomorrow.