Mr. Speaker, Brookfield is a very reasonable guess, and if only the minister would come and answer, maybe we would know whether it is Brookfield or someone else.
All I know is that it seems as though the minister just hoped that nobody would notice that Canada went along with trying to impose this massive tax on the import of every good that we bring into this country. Unfortunately for her, though, we did notice. We asked her to come forward within a few weeks to explain the vote and explain the process that was happening, but we got crickets; we have been ghosted yet again.
Then, all of a sudden, the Liberal MPs moved a motion to bring forward the minister for supplementary estimates, the bare minimum of what a minister could appear for. Surprisingly, she agreed to lump one hour of supplementary estimates in with one hour of the two hours that were requested regarding her mandate and priorities. That was for Monday, December 1.
Lo and behold, hours before the meeting, she got too busy. She could not possibly come for two hours. She would come for one hour, combining all of the spending and supplementary estimates for the environment department with what her mandate and priorities are. She would give us one hour, in which the chair would start the meeting a little late, she would leave a little early, and we would call that a day.
That is not accountability, and it is not ministerial responsibility.
There is another outstanding future invitation for the minister to come with respect to the industrial carbon tax, the so-called strengthening that we are expecting to perhaps see, as alluded to in the budget and in the memorandum of understanding with Alberta. I hold out next to no hope. This minister is simply terrified to show up. She is terrified to come and answer tough questions about a $500 carbon tax and about the fact that manufacturers, dealers and Canadians broadly despise the electric vehicle mandate. If this job is too hard, then give up the car, give up the driver, give up the salary, give up the responsibility and let the Prime Minister appoint somebody else. I am sick and tired of asking officials questions that ministers should be accountable for at committee.
Speaking of not being up to the job, there is our committee chair. Aiding and abetting this ministerial dereliction of duty is an unchecked, tyrannical, power-tripping chair who is unwilling to collaborate with any members of the opposition. Now, this member has been elected for a long enough time to know, I would have assumed, the rules. It has become clear that either intentionally hiding behind not knowing the rules, or simply not knowing the rules, is perhaps cover for following orders from on high from the minister's office, to try to avoid any sort of accountability.
Just to give a few examples from a very in-the-weeds procedural standpoint here, I have never seen so many requests for suspension and all of a sudden the chair whacking gavels and we are suspended. I have never seen so many attempts at a point of order just ignored to adjourn a meeting. I have never seen such a rude exchange as the one with my colleague from the Bloc Québécois, in which the chair took issue with the professionalism of a member.
I hope that in future, this debate today sparks a conversation, as it appears that there are many other chairs who are certainly lacking in awareness of the new and improved big green book that was just recently circulated to members' offices here. There should certainly be an increase in training for chairs, either to better understand the non-partisan nature of their role or simply to understand the rules. They should not have so many rookie MPs, who have just taken the time to read the rules of this place, providing guidance to the chair. They should not have chairs so reliant on and attempting to follow but basically bungling the advice of the clerks.
All in all, the environment committee has been a difficult one for the Liberal government because of its terrible track record of coupling the amount of pain and suffering that it has imposed upon Canadians with its incredibly disastrous track record of environmental policies and the lack of gain in terms of any environmental results, made worse by a complete disregard for ministerial accountability.
It is time that we did better. It is time for the Minister of Environment, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Transport, the ministers of the Liberal government, to do a heck of a lot better.