Debates of June 12th, 2025

Opposition Motion—GC Strategies Inc.

[Emma Harrison, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Trois-Rivières.

This is a great opportunity to introduce myself. I have heard a lot about the old government. I am new here. Members will have a great opportunity to meet me later. I believe my colleague next to me is the new member for Carleton, a Liberal who won the riding after 20 years.

The Government of Canada accepts the findings of the latest Auditor General of Canada's report related to the procurement of professional services. We take this report, and all subsequent recommendations, seriously and remain fully committed to fairness, openness and transparency in federal procurement practices. Simply put, we are committed to protecting the integrity of procurement.

While that commitment remains, our new government will do things differently. Elected with a mandate to deliver change, we will take a new approach to governing, one that includes a laser focus on fiscal discipline. We are well aware of the past issues around the procurement of professional services, in particular, those that were uncovered through previous audits and investigations. Again, in this most recent report. The Auditor General has been clear that the right procurement rules are in place, but federal organizations have not consistently followed procurement policies when awarding and managing contracts. This, we wholeheartedly agree, is unacceptable.

While the Auditor General did not make any new recommendations for the government, the report reinforces the previously identified issues in procurement practices, underlining the importance of clearly understanding and correctly applying existing policies. I can say that the government has already acted on past recommendations and continues to take strong steps in improving oversight and the management of federal procurement.

Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat are working closely with government departments and agencies to address the gaps identified in previous audits. This includes improving data collection, increasing transparency in procurement decisions, clarifying roles and responsibilities and strengthening oversight and accountability in procurement activities. We are making these changes to strengthen the federal procurement process, improve the way the government does business with suppliers and achieve the best value for Canadian taxpayers.

The findings of this report are very much in line with previous reports from the Auditor General relating to similar matters. Previous reports provided the government with important recommendations to improve the oversight and integrity of federal procurement, particularly in professional services. We are taking these lessons, and I assure everyone that we are working hard to apply them.

Over the past year, PSPC has taken concrete actions to strengthen oversight on all professional services contracts falling under its authority. In collaboration with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the department has acted swiftly to implement several measures, including improving evaluation requirements to ensure resources are appropriately qualified for the job, requiring suppliers to be more transparent about the prices and subcontractors they use, improving our own documentation when awarding contracts and authorizing tasks, and better specifying and documenting what needs to be done, as well as which projects and tasks contractors are working on.

By streamlining and simplifying our mandatory procurement mechanisms, we are transforming and modernizing how the government procures professional services. This includes reducing risk in our buying processes, improving how we manage contracts and doing more to promote solution-based procurement approaches that would ensure we are always getting the best value for Canadians. The Auditor General had no additional recommendations for the government regarding this file, but asked that we continue to implement the measures we have introduced to respond to previous recommendations. We will ensure that happens. We will actively engage with client departments and agencies to ensure these new measures are implemented quickly and efficiently.

We are also taking strong action to ensure that we do not do business with suppliers of concern. Earlier this month, the office of supplier integrity and compliance deemed GC Strategies as ineligible from entering into contracts or real property agreements with the Government of Canada for seven years. PSPC had previously suspended the security status of GC Strategies in March 2024, which precluded it from participating in federal procurements with security requirements. PSPC had also suspended GC Strategies from all professional services, contracts and contract vehicles administered by the department. When it comes to recovering funds in cases where we identified fraudulent behaviour or overbilling, I can assure the House, as my colleague has mentioned, that we are pursuing GC Strategies in court.

As I noted earlier, we remain committed to protecting the integrity of procurement and to expecting public servants and departments to operate with the highest standards of integrity when procuring professional services to support their program delivery.

Our government will continue to strengthen procurement practices when needed. We know that our work is not finished and that there will be more to be done. We take to heart the Auditor General's advisement to continue applying recommendations made in previous audits. That is exactly what we are doing.

Again, I want to thank the Auditor General and her team for undertaking this review and for their findings and previous recommendations. This report affirms that we have the right policies and rules in place, but they need to be well understood and applied properly. We are thankful for the Auditor General's work, which will help us as we continue to review our processes and find ways to strengthen the integrity of government procurement.

I wanted to note something very important. There were numerous reports, as well as scrutiny, on this matter in the last Parliament, but bad actors are being held to account. It is now time for the Conservatives to stop playing games and get down to the business of governing. Canadians elected our new government to move forward on a bold agenda, such as tackling crime, securing the border and making life more affordable.

Let us put the games behind us to focus on what Canadians sent us here to do.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is funny. Every time I hear someone from the new Liberal government say that they are going to be ethical in the future, that they are going to do things right in the future and that they are not going to be corrupt in the future, it seems very clear that it is an admission that the last 10 years were nothing but ineptness, incompetence and corruption. It is very clear.

The hon. member said that they are going ahead with trying to recover the money from GC Strategies through the courts. One of her colleagues earlier stated that they were not at that point because they were waiting for a legal opinion. At the same time, the deputy minister of PSPC says that they have the ability to recover the funds from suppliers any time they wish.

Of the three, which is the truth?

[Emma Harrison, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, decisions around suspending contractors must be made independently and free of political interference. That is why we have set up the office of supplier integrity and compliance. Currently, PSPC is in court to recoup money from GC Strategies for work that was not completed. We will never tolerate fraudulent behaviour and unethical behaviour.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I commend the member for Peterborough for her speech. It is mind-boggling to hear the Liberals claiming that they are a new government with a new vision and a new management approach. All of a sudden, they see the merit of properly managing public funds.

Let us consider, for example, the CBSA assessment and revenue management system, or CARM, the Phoenix pay system and the long-gun registry, or we can go back even further to the sponsorship scandal.

In each of those situations, the Liberals said that they truly acknowledged the situation, that they would do better and that they would be more rigorous, but there is no evidence to show that such is the case. Even the Auditor General said in her report that she would not be adding any further recommendations because the government has been unable to implement the ones it has already received.

Let us be serious. What does the member think are the chances that the government will be able to recover even one penny of the amounts it paid to GC Strategies?

[Emma Harrison, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada has accepted all of the recommendations previously made by the Auditor General. In her most recent report, she made no new recommendations but urged the government to continue to implement previous recommendations, which has happened. These measures are meant to strengthen the integrity of the procurement system, including improving data collection, increasing transparency in procurement decisions, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and strengthening oversight and accountability in procurement activities.

[Tom Osborne, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member spoke about some initiatives that are being put in place to ensure greater accountability and greater transparency in terms of the spending of taxpayers' money. I would like to ask her to elaborate a little more on that.

[Emma Harrison, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat are working closely with government departments and agencies to address the gaps identified in previous audits.

This includes improving data collection, increasing transparency in procurement decisions, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and strengthening oversight and accountability in procurement activities, just to name a few.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on her speech. However, what I do not understand is the Liberals' old habit of hiding behind lawyers and procedures instead of making a firm political commitment to stand up for taxpayers who have been wronged and robbed of their money.

Why is the member unable to stand up today and clearly tell Canadians and Quebeckers that the government will do everything it can to recover the money they lost because of GC Strategies?

[Emma Harrison, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians made a clear decision, and they asked for a clear mandate for this new government to do just that, to stand here, stand up for them and unite us as a country in this incredibly difficult time. That is what we are going to do.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in light of the mixed messaging on efforts to recoup the money from GC Strategies, the member for Peterborough indicated that PSPC has taken GC Strategies to court.

Will the member or her government table the statement of claim in the House today?

[Emma Harrison, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, again, I feel like I am being a broken record here, repeating the same things we have seen for the last several hours. As a new member, it is honestly surprising that this is the way things are carried out. I do believe Canadians are expecting more from us besides this back-and-forth tit-for-tat.

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today, just a few hours before we will vote to implement measures to make life more affordable for Quebeckers and Canadians.

The people of Trois-Rivières, along with people in the ridings of all my colleagues on both sides of the House, will be watching carefully to see what we do today. These measures will help put more money in Canadians' pockets. We hope that our opposition colleagues will vote with us.

As we said all morning, the Government of Canada accepts the findings of the Auditor General of Canada's latest report on the procurement of professional services. We take this report and all subsequent recommendations seriously. We remain fully committed to the fairness, openness and transparency in federal procurement practices. Simply put, we are committed to protecting the integrity of procurement.

In the last Parliament, parliamentarians, the Auditor General, multiple parliamentary committees and others undertook extensive work to examine and hold to account those who were found to have acted inappropriately. With new safeguards in place and serious action being taken to hold GC Strategies accountable, it is time to turn the page on the political games of the last Parliament. Let me be clear. Our new government believes that misconduct of any kind is unacceptable.

This is, in fact, a new government, with a new direction, a new leader and almost 40% new MPs. It received a strong mandate for change from Canadians. We will take a new approach to governing, one that includes a laser focus on fiscal discipline. We will also modernize procurement processes.

We are well aware of the issues around the procurement of professional services, in particular, that were uncovered through previous audits and investigations and again in the latest report.

The Auditor General made it clear that the right procurement rules are in place, but that federal organizations did not consistently follow procurement policies when awarding and managing contracts. We wholeheartedly agree that this is unacceptable.

It is important to note that the Auditor General did not make any new recommendations to the government. However, the report reinforces the previously identified issues in procurement practices, underlining the importance of clearly understanding and correctly applying existing policies. I can say that the government has already acted on past recommendations and continues to take strong steps in improving oversight and the management of federal procurement.

Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat are working closely with government departments and agencies to address the gaps identified in previous audits. This includes improving data collection, increasing transparency in procurement decisions, clarifying roles and responsibilities and strengthening oversight and accountability in procurement activities. We are making these changes to strengthen the federal procurement process, improve the way the government does business with suppliers and achieve the best value for Canadian taxpayers.

The findings of this report are very much in line with previous reports from the Auditor General relating to similar matters. Previous reports provided the government with important recommendations to improve the oversight and integrity of federal procurement, particularly in professional services. We are taking these lessons, and I can assure the House that we are working hard to apply them.

Over the past year, PSPC has taken concrete actions to strengthen oversight on all professional services contracts falling under its authority. In collaboration with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the department has acted swiftly to implement several measures, including improving evaluation requirements to ensure resources are appropriately qualified for the job, requiring suppliers to be more transparent about the prices and subcontractors they use, improving our own documentation when awarding contracts and authorizing tasks, and better specifying and documenting what needs to be done, as well as which projects and tasks contractors are working on.

This includes reducing risk in our buying processes, improving how we manage contracts and doing more to promote solution-based procurement approaches that would ensure we are always getting the best value for Canadians. The Auditor General had no additional recommendations for the government regarding this file.

The changes we have made predate the Auditor General's last report. In November 2023, following the revelation of the improper contract negotiations with GC Strategies, PSPC wrote to the government departments and agencies to inform them that it would be replacing all master-level user arrangements with client departments, agencies and Crown corporations. These arrangements set out conditions for access to select professional services methods of supply maintained by PSPC. As part of this process, PSPC and client departments have established new arrangements, which stipulate the use of new contract provisions to increase costing and subcontractor transparency. These new arrangements were circulated to the departments on January 31, 2024, and they are now in force. A more recent measure that just came into effect this month is the implementation of part 18 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2005. This gives the Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement exclusive authority over federal procurement.

That is not the end. On the contrary, departments and agencies will continue to exercise the authority to conduct their own procurement. However, the Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement can now revoke a department or agency's delegation if there is reason to believe that procurement rules are not being followed. More broadly, as circumstances dictate, the minister can mandate standard procurement processes across all federal departments and agencies.

Once again, I want to thank the Auditor General and her team for undertaking this review and for their findings and previous recommendations. This report affirms that we have the right policies and rules in place, but they need to be well understood and applied properly. In her report, the Auditor General found that federal procurement policies promote fairness, transparency and value for Canadians when they are followed. That is what the Auditor General said. The important thing is not to create more rules and red tape, but to ensure that all departments and agencies follow the rules that are in place. We will use evidence-based approaches to improve processes and ensure that the existing procurement rules are followed and properly documented each and every time.

Finally, let me be clear: This new government expects public servants and departments to operate with the highest standards and to always be mindful of optimizing the use of public resources for Canadians. We will learn from these reports and audits, and we will not hesitate to take bold, decisive action to ensure the best value for Canadian taxpayers in all government contracts.

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have professional experience as a chief information officer in managing multi-million dollar projects globally for large corporations and government agencies. This scathing report by the Auditor General illustrates the lack of governance of the Liberal government, from procurement to change management to the validation of deliverables and time sheets.

Where was the due diligence by the Liberal government? Where was the minister overseeing this portfolio? A good governance process requires supervision, checks and balances and scrutiny throughout the project. All of these basic governance processes were missing by the Liberal government. We are looking for fellow members to approve this motion and give the money back to Canadians.

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want us to move forward. They want this Parliament to get to work and deliver on our commitments. They made that very clear on April 28. That is what Canadians expect.

As we have said repeatedly, we are grateful to the Auditor General for her report and the recommendations it contains. Legal action is also being taken against GC Strategies. We are doing everything in our power to see this matter through to the end.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada has accepted all of the Auditor General's previous recommendations. However, our opposition colleagues are telling us the opposite.

Did the Auditor General make any other recommendations in her last report?

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in her last report, the Auditor General noted that we had the right processes in place to ensure transparency and accountability in procurement processes. She did not make any additional recommendations for those processes beyond the recommendations that were made in 2024 and that we have already implemented.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, what we are hearing from the member for Trois-Rivières today is pretty mind-blowing.

She seems to think that a new election is like a reset button. Imagine a driver ramming their car into a lamppost. Even if we replace the driver, the car is still the same, unless my colleague is saying the opposite.

We are talking about 106 contracts between 2015 and 2023, most of them non-competitive. So much for fiscal restraint. After a new election, we are supposed to forget all that. It is swept under the rug and we are told it will never happen again. For more than half the contracts, representing $74 million, the government did not even check whether it received the deliverable before paying the bill.

I have some news for my colleague from Alfred-Pellan: The Auditor General did not make any recommendations because the government was not even capable of following the ones that had been made in previous reports.

Is a new election like a reset button? Is that what my colleague is saying?

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, on April 28, Canadians made it clear they want change. They are not just looking for a new direction. They elected this government. The change they want to see is all of us working together to make progress on the real issues.

We are at a crossroads, a critical time for the Canadian economy, for economic health, for workers, for Canadians and Quebeckers. People expect us to work on those things together, hand in hand.

We are implementing the recommendations the Auditor General made in 2024. We are getting to the bottom of this matter. We are taking GC Strategies to court. We are doing everything we can to resolve this issue.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie South—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as this is my first time rising in this place for a speech on a particular subject, I would like to thank the people of Barrie South—Innisfil for electing me for a fourth term. I take their support with great humility and responsibility as well. I certainly appreciate the support.

I am going to be splitting my time with the member for Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley.

It is almost as if we were watching the movie Men in Black with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. There were times when they had a pen-like device; they would actually press a button, and it would flash a white light. Everybody who saw that light forgot what had gone on in the past. It is almost as if the Liberal Party were using that light to make everybody, not just in this place but across the country, forget what has gone on in the past.

As we relate to the GC Strategies situation today, a lot has gone on in the past. Words that end in “bility” seem to have been lost in this place, such as “responsibility”, accepting responsibility. "Accountability” is another word that has been lost in this place. Certainly ability has been lost in this place as well as among the Liberal government.

In the private sector, the people responsible for the situation would be fired. They would be publicly shamed and never hired within industry again. That is how egregious the GC Strategies situation has become. Again, the Liberals have avoided all accountability and all responsibility for actions by labelling themselves as a new government, when in reality, not only are the ministers responsible for the failure still around, but many of them have been promoted into different positions.

During the campaign, I would go around talking to people. We would talk about the Liberals and the history of the last 10 years. I would say to them that even if new wax is put on a car, it is still a 10-year-old car. That is where the Liberal government was. It still has dents and engine problems. It has lots of problems, and a new wax was not going to change anything. The government is not a new government. We can shift people around. We can change titles and pretend that it is not the same Liberal government that has been driving our country into the ground over the last 10 years, but it is.

This would not be tolerated in the private sector, so why are we tolerating it in this place? All we are asking is for the government to take accountability, support the motion to claw back the fraudulent spending and ensure that Canadians, hard-working taxpayers, are able to get their money back. Is that a hard ask? It is not, especially in a situation as egregious as this.

Let us go back and look at what happened with GC Strategies, which is, again, reaffirmed in the Auditor General's report from the other day. I happened to be in the lock-up. I listened to the Auditor General. Having gone through all of this in the previous Parliament, I was shocked once again by just how deep the rot goes and how systemic a problem this is within the current government. There are no signs that it is going to change.

In 82% of the contracts that were received, the government failed to verify that the fees paid did not exceed market rates. This deliberately allowed room for the government to overpay for contracts and waste taxpayer dollars. The government chose, 82% of the time, not to verify whether it was overpaying. It was overpaying on these contracts yet still awarded GC Strategies $92.7 million in contracts, with $64.5 million being paid out, and yet there is nothing to show for it. There is nothing to show for the corruption or the fraud that occurred.

The project was supposed to cost only $80,000, and yet it ballooned to $64.5 million, 80,000% over budget. Even the Auditor General says that she does not know what the true cost would be because she does not have access to certain record-keeping, etc. This is also not considering the cost to investigate, spend time, and have taxpayer dollars investigate it and uncover the depth of the scam instead of working to improve this country.

I think of the thing that really bothered me. As the most recent chair of the ethics committee, where we were studying foreign interference, the impact it was having on our country and the fact that many parts of our institutions and some political parties as well had been infiltrated by foreign interference, there were a lot of things that disturbed me. The security lapses that occurred were probably one of the things that really disturbed me throughout the whole saga.

A sample of the contracts, and this was reaffirmed again the other day by the Auditor General, showed that 33 out of the 35 contracts required security clearance, with 50% of those contracts not able to show that all contract resources, including the subcontractors, had the appropriate security clearance prior to collecting the award. Obviously, we have heard about the implications of foreign interference and the fact that there are regimes that are trying to infiltrate and are successfully infiltrating our institutions, such as Parliament and other areas.

The government could not even guarantee that the security clearances were not having an impact on what was going on, and in knowing the damaging facts and the evidence that would come in light of the Auditor General's report, the Liberals were quick to issue a seven-year ban on government contracts to GC Strategies. It was not lost on me and should not be lost on members that this seven-year ban happened on the Friday before the Auditor General's scathing report came out on Tuesday morning.

Whether that speaks to the government's having a heads-up and trying to get ahead of the story is certainly in question, but the ban was not issued out of the goodness of its heart but rather to overcompensate for its prior lack of accountability, responsibility, variability and traceability in their work on and with GC Strategies. There are those words with “bility” again.

Why not, and this is a fair question, issue a lifetime ban on the company? Why not issue a specific ban on Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony to ensure that the people involved do not reincorporate under a different name and continue with their grift on the government? They can, in effect, change the name, start another company, and even after these seven years, or perhaps within it, they can come back to the government and start issuing contracts again.

This sets a tone. Obviously, the GC Strategies scandal has set the standard and tolerance for this kind of behaviour, signalling that the government can be taken advantage of and exploited at the expense of the taxpayer. It has completely undermined Canadians' ability to place their trust in their own government, old government or new government, and the government certainly needs to make an example out of GC strategies, signalling a new message that this level of fraud and incompetence will not be tolerated.

My concern going forward, quite frankly, and I spoke about this in August 2022, is what we just saw with the main estimates, where we are seeing $26 billion in additional increases for contractor costs. My concern is that the kleptocracy is going to continue within the current government. If someone is a friend, a family member or a lobbyist who is connected with the government, they are going to benefit to a great degree, and without mechanisms of accountability and transparency, and our ability to provide oversight as an official opposition and as all opposition members in this place, it is going to be awfully difficult for us to keep track not only of where the $26 billion is going to go but also what has happened in the past, the history of the past.

As we have seen with GC Strategies, the government has shown itself not to be transparent and not to be accountable at times when it needs to be. This is not a new government; this is an old government with new wax on the car.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the only one trying to use the Men in Black flashlight to make people forget everything that happened is Pierre Poilievre, who wants everyone to forget the fact that he had a 25-point lead in the polls and then completely blew an election only a month and a half ago.

I would think that the member, and Conservatives generally speaking, would have a new approach when they come into the House, but when the member gets up to speak, he is just using the exact same material he was using a year ago, two years ago and three years ago, which ultimately led to his sitting almost in the exact same seat that he left in December.

My question for the member is this: Would he not think that perhaps now is a time to reset the strategy on the Conservative benches to a strategy that might be more productive in terms of how the Conservatives conduct themselves in the House?

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie South—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is really rich when a member of the old government, purporting to be the new government, stands up and does not accept responsibility or accountability for what went on in the past.

The Liberals want us to forget about the past. They want us to forget about all the corruption, all the cronyism and all the kleptocracy that went on, where government insiders and well-connected friends and families benefited as a result of the Liberals' being in power, while the people they governed suffered. They continue to suffer.

People need the money back. They want the money back. There has to be accountability in the government, and that is what we are asking for with the motion.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today's debate is an odd one. We hear the government that was in power before the previous government calling it out for things that the new government claims are not its fault, because the Liberal Party of Canada has changed leaders. The whole thing is Kafkaesque. I cannot wrap my head around it.

Personally, it does not bother me if the government is Conservative, Liberal, red, blue, orange, green, yellow or whatever colour it wants to be. All we want is for the government and those who currently hold the reins of power to get back the money that was taken from us by GC Strategies. Can it do that? Is my colleague willing to acknowledge that we need to get that money back?

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie South—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I already said that in my speech. The government is the same. Nothing has changed but the leader. It is like the example I gave of an old car: Even with a coat of wax, an old car is still an old car.

If the government is truly willing to change, it will vote in support of this motion.

It would not vote for covering up all of its indiscretions in the past. This is a systemic problem within the government that needs to be exposed. We are exposing it. The money needs to be paid back, and it needs to be paid back now.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague talked about how this particular scandal would be dealt with in the private sector. We know that in 2015, Justin Trudeau promised Canadians that he would be open by default and that if the Liberals made a mistake, they would own up to it and apologize.

Can my colleague identify any particular minister or deputy minister who has accepted responsibility for the boondoggle?

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie South—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, not one has accepted responsibility for what went on with GC Strategies. Not one minister has accepted any of the responsibility for all the scandals, all of the corruption and all of the cronyism that has gone on over the last 10 years. In fact, as I said in my speech, several have been promoted into new positions. It is unacceptable that Canadians would accept this. Canadians did accept it, and I understand some of the reasons they did.

This is important to understand: Much of this stuff was happening long before Donald Trump became the President of the United States, and it will continue under the current government. We are going to see, as I said earlier, that the kleptocracy continues, where well-connected insiders, cronies, friends and families are going to benefit as a result of the government's continuing on. There is $26 billion in consultants is in the main estimates. Where do people think the money is going to go? It is going to keeping the kleptocracy alive, and it has got to stop.