Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Lévis—Lotbinière. I am pleased today to rise in support of the motion before the House. The motion, in essence, refers to four major elements of the Conflict of Interest Act regarding the acceptance of illegal gifts, furthering private interests, being in a conflict of interest, and accepting travel.

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, we were reminded last week that the Prime Minister offers ridiculous answers to serious questions as often in his town halls as here in the House. In one outrageous response to a citizen concerned about his plan to reintegrate ISIS terrorists returning to Canada, the PM compared these returning terrorists to refugees from post-World War II Europe and Vietnamese boat people.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, even the British prime minister appears before a committee. As the Liberal House leader recites the Prime Minister's empty lines, the message is “Case closed, nothing going on here, the PM promises to consult the Ethics Commissioner about future vacations.” However, there are other important findings in the commissioner's report.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister broke the law. He has been found to have violated four major sections of the Conflict of Interest Act and, in breaking the law, he wasted hundreds of thousands of Canadians' hard-earned tax dollars. He has offered no meaningful answers in the House, and has refused a reasonable invitation to discuss the Ethics Commissioner's findings in the serene and respectful surroundings of the ethics committee.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, “This situation was a reminder for all of us to be extremely careful about our expenses and about the public trust that we wield.” Those are not my words; those were the high-minded-sounding words of the Prime Minister as he stood in front of his cabinet a couple of years ago, referring to the then health minister and thousands of dollars of inappropriate travel expenses.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, when his minister misspent thousands of dollars in improper travel expenses, she apologized and repaid those misspent expenses, and the Prime Minister preached about recognizing “public trust”. Now, in another flagrant display of double standards, he not only refuses to do the right thing, but he demeans his House leader by forcing her to recite his empty lines.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, returning to the Ethics Commissioner's report, titled in the Prime Minister's name, the Prime Minister has been found to have broken the law. The Prime Minister accepted an illegal gift. The Prime Minister's illegal trip and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of improperly generated costs made Canadian taxpayers complicit in the laws he broke.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner found that the Prime Minister did not only violate four important sections of the Conflict of Interest Act, but that the Prime Minister violated his own guidance document for ministers, which he sanctimoniously titled, “Open and Accountable Government”.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to the backdrops and podiums used by the government for the announcements since January 1, 2017, for each backdrop purchased and for each podium purchased or rented: (a) what was the date of purchase or rental; (b) when was the tender issued for the backdrop or podium; (c) when was the contract signed; (d) when was the backdrop or podium delivered; (e) what was the cost of the backdrop or podium; (f) was there an announcement for which the backdrop or podium was used and, if so, for which ones; (g) which department paid for the backdrop or podium; and (h) when were the backdrops or podiums used, broken down by event and date?

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to contracts under $10,000 granted by Transport Canada, since January 1, 2017: what are the (i) vendors' names, (ii) contracts' reference and file numbers, (iii) dates of the contracts, (iv) descriptions of the services provided, (v) delivery dates, (vi) original contracts' values, (vii) final contracts' values if different from the original contracts' values?

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner released the Trudeau report a week after the House rose in December, finding that he broke the—

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, it is an official document, but I will respect your guidance. The Prime Minister has made a public statement saying that he will not discuss these findings or the wider revelations raised in the commissioner's 66-page report with the House standing committee on ethics.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, there have been no answers to questions coming out of the Ethics Commissioner's report. The commissioner found that among the laws the Prime Minister broke, the Prime Minister received an illegal gift. The taxpayers are also on the hook for the Prime Minister's decision to receive this illegal gift.

Salaries Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for a worthy defence of what we in the official opposition consider this legislation to be: damage control of the Prime Minister's original flawed decision. Because this amends the Salaries Act, I wonder if he could address the fact that the mistake was made more than two years ago now, and these newly minted ministers will have been paid, in effect, with post-dated cheques until this legislation is actually passed.

Salaries Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for another speech getting directly to the point. I thank him specifically for pointing out that example of regional economic funding, which was aimed at northern Ontario but went to the minister of everything's riding in southern Ontario.