Mr. Speaker, before I became a parliamentarian, first as the member for Red Deer, and now as the representative of the great riding of Red Deer—Mountain View, I spent 34 years as a high school math and physics teacher. As such, I always felt that, when dealing with problems, it is critical to be concise and to work with undeniable facts. This is a task that we have at hand in the House, a task that the House has seized over a grievous disservice to the Canadian public. We must continue to go forward until this grievous matter has been rightfully resolved.
However, of course, whether or not this can be resolved remains to be seen as the Liberal government thinks it can gaslight Canadians into believing that somehow enabling corruption protects Canadians. Let me be on the record today saying that this government's reaction to the production order of the Speaker shows that they are only interested in protecting those who have been the benefactors of nine years of corruption, irresponsible deficits and dishonesty to the Canadian taxpayer.
The people of Red Deer—Mountain View and I have seen enough. Here is what we are up against: What do we get when we have significant lapses in governance and stewardship of public funds, plus poor management over conflicts of interest and non-compliance with the law? We get corruption, plain and simple. This is the root cause of the case we, as His Majesty's official opposition and as servants to Canadians, are prosecuting today.
The Auditor General found all those ingredients for corruption in a blistering report released this past summer. I have spent many years sitting on the public accounts committee, and since the time of Sheila Fraser, I have had the greatest respect for the officials who work at the Auditor General's office. What they have uncovered is mind-boggling.
As a teacher, whenever my students were tasked with solving a difficult physics problem, they had to show their work, and when the first steps became clear, they could more easily progress through to the next stage of the solution. Students had to show how they came up with an answer to the problems they were attempting to solve, and this gets more challenging the more difficult and complex the problem becomes, but in that way, basic truths allow them to analyze and solve more complicated questions.
I will acknowledge that managing the federal government of Canada is not an easy task. Overseeing how we will feed Canadians and our allies around the world, how we will safeguard the value of Canadian sovereignty and citizenship, and how we will have secure, reliable and affordable energy for all Canadians is indeed a complex venture, but these federal departments that we rely on must build upon trust and truth. It is all the more an indictment on this government that they are unwilling to show their work and fulfill an order from the House to produce the documents, as the Speaker has decreed. This government clearly did not comply.
If we are supposed to tell our children, our youth, the bright young minds of the future, that they need to show their work when solving their math homework, why on earth is our federal government not able to do the same? I have a suggestion as to why. Maybe it has to do with the reality that they are so caught up in their its attempts to cling to power that it will ignore House orders to procure documents on the failed glorified slush fund and will overlook what Canadians coast to coast already see when they tune in to their federal legislature, which is that this government has lost control of the House and must accept the reality that Canada is ready for a change, a change for the better, a change that will do away with scandal after scandal.
In the Auditor General's report I mentioned earlier, it is made clear that Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC, did not establish clear assessment guidance to determine eligibility of projects, so let us allow that to sink in. According to SDTC's website, as of March 31, 2023, they had given out $1.71 billion in funding. The words “assessments guidance to determine eligibility of projects” is fancy talk for how decisions are made to give money to projects and businesses.
It is absolutely ridiculous that a federally funded foundation, under the current government's watch, was able to hand out taxpayer dollars without a clear idea of who ought to be deserving of those funds to achieve the objectives its organizations were established to fulfill. It is no different from a football team paying a coach to run plays and make decisions without the notion of a playbook. The idea that taxpayer dollars were allowed to be played with in this manner is unacceptable and frankly disturbing.
To better illuminate the gravity of the situation, I will once again draw on my teaching experience. Let us all put ourselves in the shoes of a grade 11 high school student who is beginning to complete what teachers sometimes call an independent research project. For an independent research project, usually students are tasked with coming up with a topic to study, but the important role of the teacher is to give students a framework with which they will be able to structure their assignment and therefore use their findings effectively. Without an assignment structure or grading criteria, students are left with little to go on. Do we want federally funded foundations to be in the habit of having little to go on?
What I am trying to highlight by drawing out these parallels with what we take for granted as common sense in a classroom, is that these classroom experiences often seem to be very similar to what happens in the real world. Perhaps this is by design. That is why I am trying to paint a picture for Canadians, those who have had the pleasure of teaching and all of us here in the House.
The Auditor General also found that SDTC poorly managed conflicts of interest. This, my colleagues, is really where I struggle to find any sort of solace from the Liberal government's response to this scandal. SDTC records show that conflict of interest policies were not followed in 90 cases and that SDTC did not report conflicts of interest. I would say this is shocking, but it is on par with what we and Canadians have now come to expect from our current government, and this is a shame.
There is an obvious reality that, for Canada to be the greatest country on earth, we need a new government that respects the rights of Canadians, has integrity and possesses a strong commitment to principles. It would seem that this no longer is the case after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government. Back in the day, to their credit, Liberals stayed true to their word and would aim to avoid such scandals, although the Gomery inquiry shook their confidence so many years ago. However, today, those actions are commonplace and feel as though they are just a matter of daily business. True Liberals are now fleeing a party that has now become a shadow of its former self.
I am a firm believer that humility is a virtue, and a particularly valuable one for an elected representative of the people. Is it not common sense for us? Is it not common sense for decision-makers of a fund to recuse themselves from an investment decision regarding a firm they have clear ties to? I am sure it must be challenging to conduct this practice when the fund in question is both funded by the Liberal government and when that are also in talks with firms that have strong insider connections to their network. Therefore, I ask again, would it not be common sense to do what is best for the fund's performance and, in this case, the value for money received from Canadian taxpayer dollars? If it is as I suspect, then why has there been a failure to implement such an obvious standard for a federally funded foundation that had used at least $1 billion in taxpayer funds?
I would like to let those who are listening now know that it was common-sense Conservatives who fought against the corrupt government after nine years, and common-sense Conservatives would work diligently to undo the mess that this has caused our nation.
I have already pointed out that the Auditor General had serious concerns with this glorified green slush fund. I would also like to bring it all together to a final point, and this goes back to what fundamentally shapes government. It is people. The former chair of SDTC had to resign as she was found to have improperly furthered the interests of companies associated with her own ventures according to the Ethics Commissioner. This is not right.
The Ethics Commissioner also found that this individual participated in funding decisions that benefited her own financial interests. The SDTC staff even tried to raise concerns with the staff of ISED and its minister at the time, but their concerns were ultimately dismissed. No one knows why these concerns were dismissed, but I can tell members one thing: Innocent, hard-working Canadians have been caught in the crosshairs of this mess.
On this side of the House, and I believe I speak for my colleagues, we believe in fair and just prosecution. I believe the inability of the Liberal government and a select elite few, who are calling the shots in agencies and foundations that are supposed to be at arm's length, does not reflect everyone involved. However, that is truly the saddest part of it all. Everywhere the government has gone and touched with its paws, it has sown disorder and distrust and broken the fabric that holds this country together.
The Liberal government has lost control of its spending. In 2015, it promised that it would only be in a deficit temporarily. This is a claim that, as outgoing prime minister, Stephen Harper called out from the beginning, and it is a claim that has cost many young Canadians affordable gas, affordable food and a warm place to call home.
Of course, it is on the Liberals that they have lost the humility to produce documents that would hold them to account, even when the Speaker of the House rules that this contradicts what would be in the best interests of Canadians. I will say once again what I said at the beginning of my remarks: Enough is enough. The Liberal government has a history of legislative manoeuvring that it uses to avoid accountability. Many believed the rhetoric of the need for a COVID election back in 2021, but the reality is that it was caught up in a scandal then as well. That scandal involved it not wanting to provide documents for the Winnipeg lab fiasco. Of course, by calling an election, it could and did put that controversy behind it, at least for a while. A $600-million cabinet shuffle during a pandemic election was all it took to take the heat off the fact that the Speaker had moved to the next steps of controversy and taken the government to court. Whether the current Speaker takes similar steps remains to be seen, but the pattern is clear. Maybe proroguing Parliament will shift the focus, but when Parliament resumes after such a move, this matter still needs to be resolved.
To remind Canadians of where we were in June 2021, I will read from a press release pointing out the defiance of the government when it came to releasing documents:
The [hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills], Conservative Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, and [the hon. member for Louis-Saint-Laurent], the House Leader of the Official Opposition, issued the following statement after the House adopted a fourth order requiring the [Liberal] government to hand over documents regarding the transfer of a dangerous virus from the Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the subsequent firing of two government scientists....
The statement reads:
Yesterday, the Speaker of the House ruled the Liberal government in breach of three orders of the House and its Special Committee on Canada-China Relations by continuing to cover-up the Winnipeg lab breach. These orders require the government to hand over documents related to the Winnipeg lab and its work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The [Liberal] government's defiance of these orders demonstrates a complete lack of respect for Parliament and smacks of a cover-up.
On June 2, the House adopted a motion ordering the government to hand over documents regarding the transfer of viruses from the Winnipeg lab to the Wuhan lab in March 2019 and the subsequent firing of two government scientists in January 2021. This June 2 order followed two previous orders from the Special Committee of March 31 and May 10.
Despite these orders, the Liberals continue to defy Parliament and cover-up information about these breaches of national security. It is appalling to see just how far they will go to defy Parliament and cover up details about the Winnipeg lab and its relationship with the Wuhan lab.
Conservatives have once again demanded the [Liberal] government release the documents they are hiding from Canadians so that Parliament can get to the bottom of this and ensure these breaches of national security do not happen again. However, the Liberals continue their cover-up by voting against a motion upholding the Speaker's ruling demanding the documents.
Now, for the fourth time, the House has ordered the [Liberal] government to hand over the documents. We expect the Prime Minister...to comply with this lawful order.
It further stated that:
It's time the Liberals end their cover-up. It's time for the Liberals to release these documents and be transparent with Canadians. Canadians deserve to know the truth about what happened at the Winnipeg lab and the breaches of national security. Canada's Conservatives are fighting to protect our national security.
As I said, these things have happened before. Now, there is another aspect of this that warrants more scrutiny.
I have a great deal of respect for Canadian innovators. The technology that has been supported since Sustainable Development Technology Canada was established in 2001 has been a constructive part of Canada's research and development mix. This government's obsession with green technology and the narrow scope that it has showed lately to such technology is defined, along with the now obvious lack of discipline by the board, which gives true meaning to the green slush fund.
What the AG found, and what committee members have dug up, is that 82% of funding transactions approved by the board over a five-year sampling period were said to be conflicted. Through the AG's analysis of 226 contracts, 186 were conflicted, and so it is entirely possible that the total 405 transactions approved by the board and the corresponding 333 contracts could also be suspect. If the ratios were correct, there would be a further 147 suspicious contracts. A federal investigation would need to get started really soon to get to the bottom of this, since this entire affair reeks of corruption.
If laws were broken and rules were ignored, then this government must get to the bottom of this. If CERB recipients were forced to return money that they were not entitled to, then I see no reason for an exception here. Canadians expect the truth, and they expect those who circumvented the rules to return the money.
This government needs to get to the bottom of this scandal, and it is time to give Canadians what they want. They want accountability from this government. They want to see what is in these documents that the Liberals wish to hide so desperately from the public, and Canadians cannot wait for the chance to bring back responsible governance to the true north, strong and free. We owe it to Canadians.
