John Brassard

[Ethics, April 28th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, the ethics committee also recommended that the general application provisions of the Conflict of Interest Act need to change. That means that a public office holder, including a highly conflicted prime minister, can be involved in decisions they benefit from personally, even though they are in conflict.

Brookfield's COO again confirmed that the Prime Minister will make millions from public policy decisions that align with Brookfield's strategies. Will this Liberal Prime Minister commit today to address this loophole in the law so Canadians have confidence that he is making decisions in the best interests of the country, not his own or Brookfield's?

[Ethics, April 28th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, in a review of the Conflict of Interest Act, the ethics committee heard that while the Prime Minister was Trudeau's economic adviser and chair of Brookfield, he set up one of Canada's largest tax-dodging schemes by hiding $5.3 billion in offshore tax havens. Brookfield's CEO also confirmed that the Prime Minister will make millions from what is in his blind trust by aligning public policy with Brookfield's strategy.

The committee recommended that the Prime Minister divest his holdings to ensure that he is acting in the best interests of the country and not his personal self-interest. Will the Prime Minister divest his Brookfield assets to eliminate his conflicts of interest?

[Government Business No. 9—Changes to Standing Orders, April 23rd, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, it is going to be increasingly difficult, but we are not going to stop. We are going to continue to ensure that we have accountability, transparency and oversight.

I did mention that the role of the media is going to be that much more important now. If the media acts like it does in other western democracies and actually holds the government to account, then maybe we will get some action in holding it to account as well.

[Government Business No. 9—Changes to Standing Orders, April 23rd, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, I already mentioned that in my speech. Following the election last April, the parties took part in negotiations regarding the number of members on each committee, but because some MPs have switched sides, we now find ourselves in this situation.

We have to ensure we have accountability, oversight and transparency at our committees. This would do nothing to ensure that. In fact, I suggest that it would make it much worse, and the Liberals would run roughshod through everything. They would pass whatever they want to pass, and committees would not have a say in any of it.

[Government Business No. 9—Changes to Standing Orders, April 23rd, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry that the hon. member thinks that the passion I am showing for accountability and transparency, and for ensuring that the government acts in an ethical manner, is just theatrics. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am very passionate about this.

As chair of the ethics committee, I am keenly aware of this topic. We just dropped a report today on the Conflict of Interest Act. Throughout the testimony on the Conflict of Interest Act, we heard some pretty disturbing things when it comes to blind trusts and ethics screens not being applied properly, like companies having $5.6 billion in unpaid taxes through offshore accounts. In the last little while, we have seen contracts, like the spaceport, handed out to Liberal family members.

I will make no apologies for being passionate about defending the rights of Canadians and making sure that ethical standards are met in this country.

[Government Business No. 9—Changes to Standing Orders, April 23rd, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, I will withdraw that.

The message to the media is, “Do your jobs. Hold the government to account for everything that is going on with respect to spending, contracts and all that stuff.” Canadians are going to need to rely on the media to do this. The Liberal government is handcuffing the opposition party right now, particularly on oversight committees.

With this motion and with everything else that we have seen, the sad reality is that Liberals expect Canadians to give up, get complacent and go away, so that the Prime Minister can have total power without any accountability.

That will not happen. Our country and its people are worth fighting for. We will continue to fight for people to afford homes, fuel and food. We will continue to fight for safety on our streets. We will continue to fight for our resource workers and our soldiers. Conservatives will continue to lead that fight, every day and in every way, in Parliament, across the country and into the next election when Canadians will reclaim this country we know and love, and put the power back to the people and not the government.

With that, I would like to close with an amendment to Government Motion No. 9. I move:

That the motion be amended, in paragraph (b), (a) by adding, after the words “and Estimates”, the word “and”; and (b) by adding, after the words “Public Accounts”, the following: “which shall consist of nine members and be composed of four members from the Liberal Party, four members from the Conservative Party and one member from the Bloc Québécois.”

[Government Business No. 9—Changes to Standing Orders, April 23rd, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, if Canadians wanted any evidence at all that what the Liberal government wants is an audience and not an effective opposition, Motion No. 9 reflects that accurately and precisely.

It was just under a year ago that the Prime Minister of this country was elected by Canadians. It was a fair election, but the Prime Minister was elected in a minority situation. He received fewer votes than what he needed for a majority. Canadians sent that message, as they did in previous elections, because they were not happy with the Liberal government and what it was doing to this country. Canadians elected the government in a minority situation because we had an untested, unproven Prime Minister who had never engaged in politics before.

Canadians voted for a minority government. What that meant, as is the convention around this place in relation to the Standing Orders, is that we had committees that were negotiated at that time that were structured in a way that reflected the results of the election. It meant that for Conservatives and members of the Bloc, we had the majority of members on those committees.

For the committees that were not oversight committees, that meant that if the opposition members wanted to determine what a study was going to be, wanted to compel witnesses, wanted to summons or wanted to compel documents, they could do it without it having to get to the chair. That is the way committees were formed.

The same can be said about the oversight committees. I am the chair of the ethics committee. The oversight committees exist because they deal with issues of importance related to government operations, government contracts, ethics, accountability and transparency. If it was not for the oversight committees in previous parliaments, as the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle said, none of the scandals that became big scandals, one which caused Parliament to be prorogued in the case of the Winnipeg lab scandal, would have come out if not for the oversight committees.

The purpose the oversight committees serve is to hold the government to account, to ensure there is transparency and to ensure that the information is available to us, especially when a minority government is elected. We run a real risk. I have a grave concern that the level of accountability and transparency is not going to be there with Liberal members on these oversight committees, controlling these committees.

When those committees were constituted, there were good-faith negotiations. The proportionality of what has happened now in this transactional nature of a majority government, where we have seen floor crossers give the government a majority, means they have just over 50% of the seats right now, which, again, should be reflective on those committees.

What the Liberals are proposing with Motion No. 9 is to in fact give themselves 58% of representation on those committees, which would ensure that nothing the opposition wanted to do at those committees would actually happen. There would be no summoning of documents. There would be no appearances by witnesses. There would be no studies on things that happen as a result of scandals within the government that would ever see the light of day. That is what is most troubling to me.

The other thing that has been troubling, and I have seen a pattern of this over the 10‑plus years I have been here, speaks to the importance of what is needed in this country. If we do not have any accountability and do not have the type of transparency that Parliament is going to be able to provide at this point, especially given the work the committees are charged with, it seems like we have turned into a country where we are the only country in liberalized democracies around the world where the opposition party is held to a greater account than the government by media.

That needs to stop right now, because the power that is given to this Parliament, the power that is given to MPs, the supreme power that is given, is being taken away by the Liberal government through Motion No. 9.

It is a sad indictment on where we are with respect to oversight, accountability and transparency, when there are YouTubers who are finding out more about what is happening within the Liberal government, the scandals and the connections of well-connected insiders, lobbyists and family members. When YouTubers are researching this stuff and finding this stuff out, that is a sad indictment on where we are with respect to media accountability in this country and holding the opposition to greater account than the government party.

With all that is happening with Motion No. 9, I want to send a message, because it is going to become increasingly important for the media if this passes without amendment on the oversight committees: “Do your goddamn jobs.”

[Government Business No. 9—Changes to Standing Orders, April 23rd, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, in the words of that great country music singer, George Strait, “I've got some ocean front property in Arizona” to sell. That was quite the speech.

The minister mentioned that if it were the will of the opposition parties, if for some reason the majority the Liberals have cobbled together with floor crossers were to decline into a minority situation, if the opposition parties did decide to use an opposition motion and the motion did pass, would the minister respect that decision and not call it a matter of confidence if and when that scenario were to happen? That is a fair question to ask him.

[Committees of the House, April 23rd, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present in both official languages the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Review of the Conflict of Interest Act”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.

Before I conclude, I want to thank all of our witnesses, the analysts, the clerk, the technicians and translation staff for their work on this report. It is a fairly comprehensive report that provides significant recommendations to changes to the Conflict of Interest Act.

[Firefighters, April 21st, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, this week, the International Association of Fire Fighters is holding its 33rd legislative conference in Ottawa. As a former firefighter and president of Markham Local 2727, I know the work IAFF members are doing this week, meeting with MPs from all parties, is critical to improving firefighter health and safety, as well as ensuring the financial security of Canadian firefighters, their families and the families of members who have been lost in the line of duty, either by accident or illness. Their advocacy reflects the same commitment to service they bring to their communities every day.

As the member of Parliament for Barrie South—Innisfil, I want to thank both the Barrie and Innisfil firefighters associations and their members, IAFF Local 1753 and Local 3804, for the work they do in increasingly difficult circumstances and for their charitable fundraising to help those in need.

Finally, I want to thank every IAFF firefighter in Ottawa this week and general president Ed Kelly for their service, their advocacy and their unwavering commitment to firefighter safety. I thank them for looking out for our families.