Parliamentary Speeches

Madam Speaker, in the vein of The Simpsons, I would like to thank Montgomery Burns for asking that question. I prefer the character of Homer Simpson to the Prime Minister any day, too, by the way. We are talking about $110 million in contracts. We are talking about seven civil suits that have been engaged against the former minister's company, a sworn affidavit in which he has been named by the person who is filing the lawsuit and a criminal investigation, which I touched upon in my speech. This is about having Mr. Anderson come to the bar and, once and for all, our finding out the truth, not just from Mr. Anderson but also from the former minister. We need to get to the bottom of this. I know that the former minister has stepped down. I am giving him an opportunity, through the amendment, to face his accuser before the House. This is about the integrity of this place and the power of committees to compel witnesses.

Madam Speaker, I did mention Gérard Depardieu, but he is from France. I was born in Montreal. When I was young, I listened to René Simard and Céline Dion. I think that I am dating myself. I really liked Quebec music. I am very familiar with the song Bye bye mon cowboy. I have a great deal of respect for Quebec. It is the province where I was born, and my parents were born there too. A family friend lives there. Every time I go back, I watch TV in French.

Madam Speaker, I have had a front row seat, for the better part of two years, to all the things that have gone on. The SDTC scandal, for example, although it has touched many committees, started at the ethics committee. Generally, the ethics committee has been working well, and actually working better recently. I cannot even say that the coalition agreement has been ripped up because it seems like it has been taped back together. I know the NDP member has shown some consistency in his actions over these two years in wanting to get to the bottom of things. Sometimes he has sided with the Liberal side. What we have seen, more than anything else, is obstruction from the Liberal members of the committee. They have, on many occasions, filibustered when motions have been presented. The ethics committee is an oversight committee. We know that. It has a majority of opposition members on it for a reason. Like OGGO and public accounts, it is designed to hold the government to account. We have been seeing more of that lately. I am glad, and this is the reason we are at this point with Stephen Anderson. He has been called to the bar. It was not unanimous, but it was the will of the majority of the committee to report this to the Speaker, and the Speaker found that privilege had been breached with the lack of information that was provided to the committee.

Madam Speaker, I want to tape this back together, but I will do that later. What a shame and a sham. Instead of fixing the structural problems that exist in our economy, the government, through its NDP partner in this costly coalition, are throwing crumbs around. The problem, as we have heard from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, is this is going to create challenges for businesses at their busiest time of the year. How can the Liberals justify this at this point when businesses and economists are panning this plan. The Liberals are not structurally fixing things, which they could do by eliminating the carbon tax and other tax measures. They are just providing crumbs right now. Worse yet, they are undermining democracy, undermining Parliament, with a spending measure that has very little scrutiny. The government and its NDP partner are circling the bowl right now. They are desperate to find anything of relevance in their existence. They are going to fail, and then we will have a common-sense Conservative government that is going to do the things that need to be done to fix this country and return normalcy and decency to it.

Madam Speaker, the hon. member just spoke about something extremely important, about the structural problems that exist within our economy right now, the debt and deficit. People are looking for relief, but they are not looking for short-term relief; they are looking for long-term relief from an affordability standpoint, which, in our view, also includes axing the carbon tax because it is having a cascading effect across the economy. From a structural standpoint, these pieces being spread out about the economy are not going to do anything. Does the member agree that, structurally, it is not going to have an impact on the major problems that exist today?

Mr. Speaker, as all Canadians did, I sat there on Friday night and saw what was going on in my hometown of Montreal. I was absolutely disgusted by the display of a lawless mob that was destroying such a beautiful city. In fact, it is happening right across the country, and it is escalating. Canadians are becoming increasingly concerned about this escalation. What would my hon. colleague say we should do about it?

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Thornhill, the deputy leader of our party, for her passionate statement today about what happened in Montreal on Friday night. I recall that in the days after October 7, I went to the Am Shalom synagogue in south Barrie. I was there participating in a service that was directed by the rabbi, which involved many community members and community leaders. We could sense by their anguish over what happened on October 7 just how deeply and profoundly this terrorist attack by the terrorist organization Hamas had on the Jewish people I represent in Barrie—Innisfil. I remember making a speech to the congregation and telling them that as elected officials it was our responsibility to keep our community safe, not just the Jewish community but all communities across this country. There was concern about not just what happened but what potentially could happen in this country. For the better part of two years now, we have been seeing this play itself out on the streets. I watched, like many Canadians did on Friday night, not necessarily on mainstream media, because there was not much coverage about what happened in Montreal on mainstream media, but on social media, this lawless mob trashing and destroying while intimidating Jewish Canadians. I, for one, as a member of Parliament and a Canadian citizen, was disgusted by what I saw in my hometown of Montreal. It was disgusting. Enough is enough. It is time for leadership. It is time for moral clarity. It is time to not have a leader who is feckless and timid in his approach, who says one thing to one group and says another thing to another group. I can tell my colleagues that many Canadians are feeling this way. They have seen what has gone on. Lawless mobs have been pervading our streets for the last two years. That escalated on Friday night in Montreal. We also saw it over the weekend in Toronto, where terrorist sympathizers were going to Jewish communities and taunting them right near their homes. We cannot stand for that. We should not stand for that. We need to do something about it. It is unbelievable that this is going on in this country. It is not just partisans on the right and partisans on the left who are saying this. There are always going to be partisans. Normal people are saying this now. They are saying enough is enough. They want a return to normalcy and decency in this country. That takes leadership. Canada used to be a place where we allowed those who were persecuted to come into our country. Those who were persecuted for faith-based reasons, for their sexual orientation, for being from the wrong tribe or whatever used to come to this country to flee persecution. Now we are allowing the persecutors into this country. Those very people the persecuted were fleeing from are the people who have been allowed by the government into this country to do what they are doing to it right now, to create chaos, to intimidate and to bring the grievances of other nations to our nation. Instead of standing under one flag, the Canadian flag, they are standing under the flags of the grievances they brought to this country. That is wrong. We are Canadian. We stand for what is right. We have moral values. We protect those who are vulnerable and keep them free from intimidation. This is pervading our streets right now and it has to stop. It is only going to stop when solid leadership with some moral clarity is shown in this country and the rule of law is applied equally in this country. This is a shame. I am hearing from my community of Barrie—Innisfil. I was out all weekend and heard what is going on. I heard the concern among many people, not just Jewish Canadians but people from other backgrounds and Canadians who were born here, saying enough is enough. They want a return to normalcy and decency in this country and a change of government. In many people's views right now, the only way we are going to return to a sense of normalcy and decency is if we have a change of government, because the government has proven time after time that it is not concerned about doing the right thing. It is not concerned about protecting those who are facing fear and intimidation in our communities right across the country. The government's only concern is in protecting itself politically and making sure it does whatever it has to do to stay in power, no matter what the cost or how it impacts communities across this country, whether Jewish or other communities. It has to stop, and it cannot stop soon enough. A lot of European and eastern bloc people tell me the same thing. As much as I am hearing from those who fled persecution about how we are allowing the persecutors into this country, eastern bloc people come to me all the time, wave their finger and say, “This happened in my country. It is why I left my country. Do not let what happened to my country happen in this country.” What do they mean by that? It is a different perspective, but it is the rise of authoritarianism and totalitarianism, the incremental loss of rights and freedoms, and control of the media that many of these people fled to come to this country so they would never have to experience it again in their lives and, better yet, so their children would never have to experience it. However, we are seeing it time and time again. The corruption, the cronyism, all the same things that people fled from in eastern bloc countries, are pervading our institutions here in Canada. Enough is enough. It is time to return to a sense of morality, decency and normalcy in this country because Canadians have had it. Normal people have had it, too. When I say “normal”, I mean people who do not pay much attention to politics. They go about their lives, trying to provide for their families, not just now but for future generations as well. They see everything that is going on. They see the lawless mobs on the street, the corruption, the debt and the deficit. They see the fact that their children, many of whom are 30 or 35, are unable to buy a house or afford rent and so still live in their basement. They see the cost of groceries. They see the cost of everything escalating, the necessities of life becoming unaffordable. Those normal people right now are saying something is not right. Something is wrong and they are feeling it. Single moms are worried about mortgages that are due for renewal. There are a million mortgages due for renewal in this country in 2025, some as much as 30% to 40% more in renewal costs. How are people going to afford that? How are they going to afford to keep their homes? That is what is bothering single moms right now. That is what is bothering moms. If we start ripping that security blanket away from those families, we have a recipe for disaster in this country. Many of those normal people are rising up now and saying enough is enough. They are looking at alternatives. They are looking at alternative governments that will make their lives more affordable, that will get homes built and fix the budget, the $1.34 trillion in debt we have right now. More importantly, they are looking to alternative governments in this country to stop the crime and chaos in our communities, where violent crime, gun crime and extortion have skyrocketed. It was not like this in 2015. We did not see the type of criminal activity and drug crime happening across the country that we are seeing right now. I say that normal people are rising up and are saying something is broken and something is not right, and they are right, because we have the statistics to prove it. We do not even need statistics; just look at the news. Every day in Toronto, there are shootings. Extortion, car thefts and drug overdoses are happening right across the country. What people want is a government that is going to allow for safer communities to happen. The bail system is broken in this country; police associations right across the country are talking about it right now. They are compiling statistics, and I know they are going to come out with them soon, about the fact that the bail system is so broken in this country. It is so broken that officers who are on the front line, whose lives are in danger as a result of the broken bail system, know that if they arrest somebody in the morning for a serious offence, in all likelihood they are going to be out in the afternoon, allowed to walk the streets freely. That is what is concerning normal people right now. I was at a Nigerian event on Saturday night. Friends of mine in the Nigerian Barrie—Innisfil community, and I spoke to many of them when I was there, said that crime is the number one issue of concern within their community. They came to Canada to flee from the situations they are now facing in this country. In many cases, the people who were persecuting are the ones who are here; the people who were doing the crime in other countries are here now doing the exact same thing in this country. It has to stop. Enough is enough. I want to talk about the issue at hand, which is the SDTC scandal. It is my third time rising on it. We have been dealing with it for two months. The Speaker's order was to have the government send the documents unredacted. We know, for example, that 11,000 documents still exist within the justice department. We know from the parliamentary law clerk that they have not been submitted to Parliament at this point. What is in the documents? What is it that the government is hiding that it would seize Parliament on the issue of privilege for so many months? There has to be a hell of a lot of information in there that the government is worried about. The government needs to just release the documents. The standoff can end tomorrow and we can get on with the business of the country. The Speaker ruled that the supremacy of Parliament was paramount and that the documents had to be turned over to Parliament, but they have not been up to this point. This is not the first scandal there has been. SDTC is just the tip of the iceberg. If we go through a list of some of the scandals, there was the cash for access scandal. There was the SNC-Lavalin affair. I invite anybody to just search Google and pull up the Liberal scandals since 2015. There is a whole list of them. There was the ArriveCAN scandal. There were the sole-source contracts; many sole-source contracts were issued throughout the course of the pandemic, and subsequently through the ArriveCAN app; we know there is $90 million on that one. It could be much greater than the figure that the Auditor General has discussed. There is the WE Charity scandal, with $900 million that was going to the Prime Minister's friends. The former minister of international development gave a sole-source contract, breaching ethics violations and ethics contraventions, to her friend Amanda Alvaro. Also, the minister's sister-in-law was appointed as the interim ethics commissioner for just a few days. Of course, there have been other scandals, such as the Winnipeg lab scandal. In each one of the scandals, the government has basically tied the hands of Parliament, and it has tried to cover up many of them, where many of the Liberals' insider-connected friends and cronies have enriched themselves as a result of sole-sourced contracts, other government contracts and the latest one, with $400 million to the SDTC board. Board members contravened conflict of interest guidelines 183 times and enriched themselves with 400 million dollars' worth of contracts. It is absurd. It is almost laughable that the government is spending so much political capital trying to cover this up and trying not to give the information to Parliament that it rightly deserves. It is not laughable; it is actually sad that we are in this situation. I want to go back to August 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when we started seeing a diminishment and decline in democracy. One of the first pieces of legislation that came out after the pandemic was to basically seize control of the spending power of this place, to give the Liberals, I think it was in Bill C-2, the opportunity to spend whatever they wanted on the pandemic without Parliament's approval. Shortly after that, many sole-source contracts came in and were given to Liberal-connected insiders and cronies. In August 2020, I stood up and spoke about the situation going on. At that time, we had heard about Frank Baylis and the ventilator contract, which was $300 million of sole-source contracts, and there were others. I remember quoting Warren Kinsella, who is a former Liberal strategist who was chief of staff to former prime minister Jean Chrétien. Kinsella used a word that is in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, about what the government was all about. In fact he wrote an article entitled “When You Become What You Came to Change”, in which he talked about the word “kleptocracy”. Kleptocracy is when the leaders of a nation use the availability of resources they have, either through the treasury or by other means, to not just enrich themselves but also to enrich those who are within their close, inner circle. In his article he said, “It's in the dictionary.... The Merriam-Webster people define it as ‘government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed.’” It was important at that time, and I would argue that it is equally important at this time, because it is the reason why these types of scandals are so profoundly scandalous. The allegations are that insiders and connected insiders sought to enrich themselves during this very difficult period Canadians are going through: the cost of the necessities of life such as groceries, mortgages and all of the things Canadians are struggling with, not just cost of living but also housing attainability and affordability. Nevertheless, well-connected insiders and cronies are using their relationships and their benefits to enrich themselves during these times. The problem, which Mr. Kinsella spoke about, and I would agree with him, is that the people who are governed are losing their home, their job and their future while the Prime Minister and his friends are taking off like bandits. They are enriching themselves. I asked a question to the Commissioner of Lobbying at the ethics committee meeting just a couple of weeks ago. There has been an increase in lobbying and lobbyists, going from 7,000 early in the current government to now over 11,000 registered lobbyists, all of whom are coming to Ottawa with cap in hand, their hand out, trying to get as much money as they can for the people they represent, and many of them are very likely Liberal-connected. Kinsella also said, “That is not merely wrong, it is...evil. It is beyond the pale. Beyond words.” He said that there is a name for what we now have, a government like the Prime Minister's, run by people who seek status and personal gain while the rest of us and the rest of Canadians suffer so greatly, not just economically but also socially, through the division that has been created by the government. Kinsella said it is a kleptocracy, where connected insiders benefit from their role in government at the expense of the people it governs. It is precisely what is going on; we have a kleptocracy.

Mr. Speaker, if we want any evidence of just how difficult the situation is for Canadians, I think I pretty much addressed that in the course of my speech, but we just have to ask young people right now who have felt lied to and let down by the Prime Minister after he was elected in 2015. They do not just feel lied to or let down; they feel despondent right now because the hope of a better future has been lost in many ways because of the economic and social policies of the government. Food bank use has increased to almost 3 million people a month. The good news is that it was not like this before 2015 and it will not be after the next election, which cannot come soon enough from my perspective and from the perspective of many Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, in many ways, the governance and the rules are already in place, either through the Conflict of Interest Act or through the conflict of interest laws that exist in this country. Primarily, it is the appointments. In the SDTC scandal, many of the appointments to the board of SDTC were made by the current Liberal government. The problem is, as the hon. member noted, that many of the contracts were issued with the approval of the board, or worse yet, where those individuals who were part of the board did not recuse themselves from the decision-making process. The rules are in place and everybody knows the rules. As parliamentarians, we know the rules. The challenge and the problem is that the people who are put in those positions do not act with the same moral integrity, the same moral high ground, that should be acted upon when they are appointed to positions, and they do not subscribe to the rules that already exist.

Mr. Speaker, many Canadians are waking up, especially after what happened in Montreal, but they were aware of the situation of these lawless mobs taking over the streets. I was speaking to the Canadian Association of Retired Persons just a month ago, and the question of why this is happening in this country came up. On the issue of SDTC, there are 11,000-plus documents that have not been submitted by the justice department to the parliamentary law clerk. I cannot imagine what is in there that would cause the justice department to not provide, as Parliament ordered, and as the Speaker supported, these documents to the parliamentary law clerk. I would love to see the email exchanges that went on between, for example, ISED and the justice department. I think there is a level of criminality and known corruption within those documents that the government does not want Parliament, the Speaker or all Canadians to have a look at because it is damning.

Mr. Speaker, I am an advocate for free speech. We have laws in this country that address the issue of hate speech. If one crosses the line, they should expect to be visited by law enforcement. I listened to the answer of the hon. member for Thornhill, and I agree with her. Are we going to get to a point, which we would through Bill C-63, but hopefully with a change in government we would not, when we would be starting to censor the freedom of speech of Canadians? I believe, and it is an ideological belief on my part, that free speech is paramount in our democracy. It is paramount in our democratic institutions. If we as a government are restricting that in any way, save and except for what constitutes hate speech as identified in the Criminal Code, then we are doing a disservice to not just our freedoms, but also our institutions.

Madam Speaker, I do not think there is. The proof of that is the government's reluctance to provide the documents to Parliament. What is in those documents that is so damning and could cause potential damage to the government? I will tell members what my big fear is. I understand that we have laws to protect information in this country. When we do change government, which is coming, although we do not know when, but hopefully sooner than later, then we will be able to get to the bottom of all of these scandals and have access to all of these documents.

Madam Speaker, I meant nothing. I am not looking at that member or the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands. We have $400 million that, in 183 circumstances, have been funnelled to board members of SDTC without seemingly following the Conflict of Interest Act. We know the Auditor General ruled on this. Should this not go to the police rather than a committee, if criminal wrongdoing is at play here?

Madam Speaker, if anything, this scandal has taught us that “the players gonna play, play, play, play, play...the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake”, and the government cannot shake this scandal off. There is a reason why this scandal is so profoundly scandalous, and that is that Canadians are impoverished. They are finding it hard to afford their groceries, yet Liberal-connected insiders and cronies are benefiting to the tune, in this case, of $400 million, and there was more in the past. Would the hon. member not agree that this just cannot be the case and that we have to get to the bottom of this?

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton, like myself as chair of the ethics committee, has had a front-row seat to what I would call a charade, a mockery and contempt of this institution. Mr. Anderson came to the committee. He would not answer questions directly and this is why we are in this situation. I want to ask the member about the minister. We have seen text messages. We have seen WhatsApp messages. We know that the minister was a director in this company and that he received payments from this company. We also have seen, lately, a sworn affidavit that identifies the minister by his name. Who does the member think Randy is?

Mr. Speaker, quite frankly, we could not write a Hollywood script better than what this Parliament has been experiencing with this latest scandal that has been before the ethics committee and is now making an appearance before the House. We have had a former member of Parliament start a business with a character of suspect. They got government contracts. They defrauded companies and are facing civil actions right now. A fire happened at a warehouse, and now, with the latest bombshell, there is seemingly involvement with cocaine. We have seen Liberal members at committee filibuster this issue. We are seeing Liberal members defend this issue. I know the hon. member spoke about defending the indefensible. What are Liberal members thinking in defending this minister?

Madam Speaker, the hon. member has been in this place for quite a while. She understands how quickly time goes when we get on a roll and we are talking about the people who have served their nation. I actually had some notes on indigenous people who have served our nation. Over 12,000 indigenous men and women are estimated to have served in three wars, including 7,000 first nations members. They enlisted as soldiers, as nurses and in other roles, many serving with distinction, winning medals for bravery in every action. The hon. member mentioned Tommy Prince. I would mention Mary Greyeyes as well. She joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps as the first indigenous woman to join the Canadian army. Noel Knockwood, a residential school survivor, enlisted in the Canadian army, served during the Korean War and went on to become the sergeant-at-arms in Nova Scotia. We are very fortunate where I live in Barrie—Innisfil that we not only acknowledge the people who served and continue to serve our nation, but that there are also indigenous veterans as well who proudly wear the uniform and their medals and are honoured just as greatly as everyone else is honoured.

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in this place. It is Veterans' Week; Remembrance Day is coming up. When I rise, whether it is in this place or the other place, I think of what an incredible privilege it is to be able to stand and represent the people of Barrie—Innisfil and all Canadians, frankly. Whether we align ideologically or not, our job is to represent everyone. When I think about the incredible responsibility of being a member of Parliament and being able to stand in this place, especially during weeks like this, as we lead up to Remembrance Day, I think of those who have fought throughout the course of our history in world wars and conflicts. I think of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while trying to keep the peace around the world, defending democracy and standing up for the rule of law, human rights and human dignity. I think about that often as I stand here. I think of the blood that has been spilled, the lives that have been lost and the families who have been decimated by war to allow us the privilege, all 338 of us and those who have come before us, to stand up in this place and defend the values they fought for. We can never repay those sacrifices. However, it is incumbent upon us to treat this place with the respect and reverence it deserves because of the bloodshed that happened in order for us to be able to do that. That is our responsibility as parliamentarians, The context of what we are talking about today is the obstruction of documents and the lack of respect for this institution. We are talking about the fact that Parliament is here to function in what is supposed to be a functioning democracy, yet we have a government that is obstructing the will, the right and the privilege of Parliament. It is doing so because it does not want to turn over documents that Parliament has rightly asked for and requested. This obstruction is an affront to democracy and to the very values that many fought and died for in defending this institution before us. I do not think it is the right tribute to be paying to them, quite frankly. This standoff has now effectively been going on for a month, yet the government has talked about the fact that it is not going to hand over these documents. Of the ones that have been handed over, many were redacted. We are aware, for example, that there are 11,000 documents from the Department of Justice that have not been handed to the parliamentary law clerk, not to mention all the other documents related to this SDTC scandal that have not been sent to the parliamentary law clerk for Parliament. Innovation and Science is where this whole scandal started. What conversations were going on between department officials? We know that there were some taped conversations, and we know Doug McConnachie, who came before the ethics committee, spoke on tape about how upset the minister was that this was going on. He talked about this being on a sponsorship scandal level. The sponsorship scandal was $40 million, and it took down the Chrétien-Martin government. This is a $400-million scandal in which insiders, who were connected to and appointed by the Liberal Party, were free to make decisions, regardless of any conflicts. There were many conflicts, but they did not care about them. These insiders were benefiting and funnelling taxpayer money to their own companies, to the tune of $400 million. My wife's Uncle Jackie was killed in a Lancaster bomber on his last mission over Poland, defending democracy and the rule of law. He and millions of other Canadians have fought for this country and defended democracy and those rights I spoke about earlier. Imagine what they would be thinking today, or even those families who have been decimated by war. They are watching what the government is doing today, making a mockery of this institution by not abiding by a decision of elected officials to hand over documents so we can get to the bottom of this scandal. It is absolutely absurd that we are in this position today, especially from a government and Prime Minister who said in 2015 that they were going to be open and transparent by default. Every one of the ministerial letters he sent reminded ministers that they were to be open and transparent by default. What did that mean? Maybe there were good intentions at the time, but after nine years of the Liberal-NDP government, we see that it is not open and transparent by default. It is not just with this scandal; there have been other scandals. The Winnipeg lab documents scandal is the one that stands out for me. The Liberals were going to take the Speaker to court in order to protect those documents from being publicly released and given to parliamentarians after a very similar situation occurred where Parliament ordered documents to be handed over. They prorogued Parliament. That is how bad this scandal was and how bad they did not want the information to come out. Here we are again in not the same but a closely similar situation to what we were dealing with before. It speaks to contempt of Parliament, the decline in democracy. The fact is, this is a government that holds this place in contempt every chance it gets, and we are in this standoff now because we and other parties in this place are trying to do the right thing. I believe the Speaker did the right thing in his ruling regarding the privileges of the members of this place, which are paramount and supreme in this land when it comes to calling for document production. He made the right decision. That is why we are in this place today. I want to focus on the context of what I said about those who defended democracies, those who stood up for the rule of law, those who defended human rights and human dignity, because we are heading into a very critical weekend. The most important day of the calendar year is Remembrance Day. That is arguable, but that is my opinion. It is when we pay tribute to and honour those who served our nation and those who continue to serve our nation. We are very lucky. When I say “we”, I include the members for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, Simcoe—Grey, Simcoe North and Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound. We are part of Simcoe County and are very fortunate to have a long and storied military tradition and history that all centres around Canada's largest training base, Base Borden, which is in Simcoe County. I recall when I was the critic for Veterans Affair for roughly two years, I used to travel around the country meeting with veterans, their families and stakeholders. I would always ask how many of them had been to Base Borden. If I was in a room where there were 100 veterans or active military people, 99 hands would go up and they would say they had gone to Base Borden, as it is Canada's largest training base. Then I would ask how many of them had been to the Queens Hotel in Barrie. I see the member for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte has been there, but 99 hands would go up, because if they trained at Base Borden, many a time they would end up in downtown Barrie at the Queens Hotel. With its long and storied history, Base Borden, which is in the member for Simcoe—Grey's riding, is a big part of our local economy. It is a big part of our history. In fact, the base is where many Canadians in the expeditionary force trained to fight for the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Trenches were built there. The Grey and Simcoe Foresters, of which I am an honorary member, were a big part of the preparation for the Battle of Vimy Ridge. I am going to the Remembrance Day dinner with them tomorrow night with my wife. Of course, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Canadian Forces Base Borden was the home of the RCAF. There were hundreds of thousands of Canadian airmen and airwomen who were trained throughout the First World War and Second World War in Base Borden to be able to fly missions like the Battle of Britain, for example, which was the great defence of Europe. That long and storied history of military heritage is one that we are very proud of in our riding. There are several people, too, who we are proud of. There are members of our military who will be participating in ceremonies. Nantyr Shores Secondary School Remembrance Day dinner is happening this evening. Craig Froese is a teacher at Nantyr Shore Secondary School and has done a terrific job with young people talking about our proud military history. He has written books. For example, when the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge was happening, Craig took a group of students to Vimy Ridge. I was there as the critic for veterans affairs at the time. There were roughly 30,000 people at Vimy Ridge celebrating the 100th anniversary of that great Canadian battle. I knew Craig was there, I was not sure how I was going to find him and the students among 30,000 people. All of a sudden I heard faint voices in the crowd yelling my name. I ended up finding them and we took some great photos at Vimy Ridge. That is the kind of stuff that Craig does with those students. I am sorry that I will be travelling back to Barrie this evening and I will not be able to attend that dinner. However, the Honourable Guard of the Grey and Simcoe Foresters are having their dinner tomorrow night. At Mapleview Church, Pastor Jay Davis does a great job. On Sunday, it is having three services for Remembrance Day. The Sandycove Acres Remembrance Day ceremony is happening on Sunday. The organizers do a terrific job. The City of Barrie is having its ceremony on Monday. The Town of Innisfil is having its ceremony and the Innisfil Legion Branch 547 Remembrance Day service is going on. The Cookstown and District Lions Club is having its annual veterans' dinner and, of course, Base Borden will be having its Remembrance Day service on Monday. I encourage anybody in Simcoe County to find a Remembrance Day service and pay tribute to those who served and those who continue to serve our nation and their families as well. We are talking about veterans who fought for this institution to function, who fought for democracy and fought for the rule of law. There are a few I want to mention in the short time that I have. Marcel Vigneault, who is the president of the Barrie Legion, is doing great things with outreach to veterans and their families; Phil George is the past president; and Steve Glover is the public relations officer. I know the member for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte knows Steve very well. He is one of the historians at the Barrie Legion. He does a terrific job with commemoration and making sure that not just the legion but our whole area in Simcoe County is aware of that military heritage. I cannot say enough about Fern Taillefer as the first VP. He is the veterans service officer. Fern will be front and centre, I am sure, at the Barrie Remembrance Day parade as the sergeant-at-arms leading the ceremony that day. Tim Shaughnessy is the second VP. There is, of course, Judi Giovannetti who is a conflict resolution officer there and a former district commander of the Royal Canadian Legion. They do some great work there. The Innisfil Legion will be having its ceremony on Sunday. Denis Mainville is the president there. It will be in Lefroy. About three or four years ago the member for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte and I started a poppy launch campaign. We invited people from all over the county, politicians, to amplify the start of the poppy campaign. We held it about two weeks ago when the poppy launch was initiated. We had the honour of presenting, on behalf of the Ambassador of Kuwait, a Kuwait service medal, to Denis because he served in the Persian Gulf War. The mayor of Innisfil, Lynn Dollin, was the one who presented it and pinned it on Denis. It was a really special moment. Again, that is all part of that military heritage. Laurie Sprink is the vice-president of the Innisfil Legion and Olga Cherry is the second vice-president. Of course, there will also be the Sandycove veterans I mentioned earlier. We have a terrific ceremony happening on Sunday afternoon. Fred White is the president, and I cannot say enough about Ted Gemmell and the work that he has done, really, in putting on this ceremony. Hundreds and hundreds of people from the Sandycove Acres community will be at that Remembrance Day ceremony. There is something special this year. This is Marilyn Sehn and her volunteers. They started this in the summer, and they have crocheted and knitted poppies to honour military members, past and present. All of that will be on display at the Sandycove Acres Remembrance Day ceremony on Sunday, and it happens at two o'clock. The Innisfil ceremony is going to be happening on Monday. I know that the Innisfil ideaLAB and Library is holding a special presentation on November 9 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the branch in Cookstown, telling stories of veterans from the town of Innisfil. When we talk about those stories, I cannot help but speak of Brigadier-General John Hayter, who served in the Canadian Forces from 1951 to 2009. In 1952, General Hayter joined the Grey and Simcoe Foresters, of which I am an honorary member. At the age of 18, he began training at CFB Borden, and then headed over to the Korean War. Just this past summer, the City of Barrie renamed a community centre, the Southshore Community Centre, as the General John Hayter Southshore Community Centre. This is a fitting tribute for a man who has dedicated so much to his community and so much of his life to this country. This past weekend, in Stayner, which is in the member for Simcoe—Grey's riding, World War II veteran Allister “Mac” MacDonald celebrated his 101st birthday at the Stayner Legion branch. I mentioned Craig Froese, the Nantyr Shores teacher who does great work with young people. To encapsulate the work that he does, I would say that he really pays tribute to the legacy of those who have fallen, not just from the town of Innisfil but from Simcoe County. We are so lucky, the member for Simcoe—Grey and I. We have Peacekeepers Park in Angus, which has been there for a long time; it is a tremendous tribute to those who have kept the peace around the world. There are memorial walls. There are LAVs. It really is a destination. I encourage anybody from across this country who is passing through Angus, Ontario, which is just next to Base Borden, to visit Peacekeepers Park and pay tribute to those peacekeepers. It has not only been Fern Taillefer, in the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping, but also Bob George and Don Ward, who have done all the graphics displays in that park. They have just been incredible. Of course, we have had those who have passed away in the service of our nation. As we head toward Remembrance Day, I think of Private Kevin McKay, who was 24; he was killed in Afghanistan two days before his tour was to end. Of course, I think of his Silver Cross Mother, Elizabeth, and his father, Fred. I think of them as we head toward Remembrance Day. Sapper Brian Collier, who died in 2010, grew up in Bradford. I think of his mom, Carol, and his father, Jim, who attended the poppy launch a couple of years ago. This is the 100th anniversary of the RCAF. As I said earlier, we have a proud tradition at Base Borden because it is the home, the birthplace of the RCAF. This year marked a very special centennial celebration at Base Borden, with the addition of the Ad Astra monument, “to the stars”, and it really was the community that came together. I want to commend Wayne Hay and Jamie Massie for the work that they did. We know that 133,000 aircrew trained at Base Borden. As we get into the weekend, as we get closer to Remembrance Day, poppies are being sold all over Simcoe County. Tomorrow, for example, at nine o'clock, I am going to be at the LCBO in Alcona for a couple of hours with members from the Innisfil Legion to sell poppies. Every dollar that is raised in that poppy campaign will go toward helping veterans and their families. I want to give a special tribute to the cadets, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Vents, high school students, veterans and many other members of our community who have kept that legacy alive. They are out there selling poppies so that our veterans can be looked after in the way that they have earned and the way that they deserve.

Madam Speaker, I addressed that at the beginning of my speech. We have seen the contempt for the institution of Parliament play itself out over the last nine years of the current government through the levels of scandal, the levels of corruption and the insiders' connected cronies who have been benefiting far greater than Canadians have because Canadians, whether the Liberals like to think so or not, are hurting right now, and I would say that this place is not being represented with the honour and the integrity that many who served our nation have. Just today, we are finding out again that there has been a directive that there will be no prayers at military services or Remembrance Day services. Men and women, before doing their duty and before they were called to duty, would say prayers to their god in order to protect themselves. This is what we are hearing today. It is sad, where we are at.

Madam Speaker, as we get closer to Remembrance Day, and I know we are going through Remembrance Week, it is important for us to remember all those who have served and continue to serve and their families, who in many ways serve beyond the battlefield. I was the critic for Veterans Affairs, and I still wear bracelets 24 hours a day and seven days a week, lest we forget. There is a tribute on my arm to the wounded warriors as well. Some people may think they are props, but they are not. They are not only a way for me to remember my obligation to our veterans every time they call my office for help, as anybody does, but also a tribute. It is the kind of tribute that I pay to remind me of my obligation every single day that I function as a member of Parliament. It is the same obligation I am going to have when my time is up here. Because of the profound respect that I have for veterans and their families and the prices they paid to serve this nation, I wear them proudly and as a reminder of my obligation not just as a human being, but as a parliamentarian as well.

Madam Speaker, I think the hon. Leader of the Opposition has stated very clearly and succinctly his reason. In fact, the former leader of the NDP, Tom Mulcair, agrees with the Leader of the Opposition. It is baffling that the government was talking to the Washington Post about foreign interference a week before the announcement on Thanksgiving Day. If it is truly an issue of national security, why are the Liberals giving the information to an American newspaper? There are sections in the CSIS Act allowing the Prime Minister to inform the Leader of the Opposition, if he wanted to, about this. The same provisions that were afforded to the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, for example, could be afforded to the Leader of the Opposition, so this is completely a red herring. It is an issue to distract from the failed economic policies of the government, and the Liberals are going to continue to use it as a means to distract and divide.

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of presenting two reports today. First, I have the honour of presenting, in both official languages, the 14th report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Certificate of Nomination of Caroline Maynard to the Position of Information Commissioner”. I also have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Certificate of Nomination of Nancy Bélanger to the Position of Commissioner of Lobbying”. On behalf of the committee, I want to thank both Madame Bélanger and Madame Maynard for the incredible work they have been doing over the past seven years, sometimes frustrating, but I have the utmost confidence, as does the committee, that they will continue to do great work on behalf of Parliament and on behalf of Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, there is only one person keeping the Prime Minister in power and it is the leader of the NDP. Do members remember the stunt the NDP leader pulled just before the by-election in Elmwood—Transcona when he claimed he had ripped up his coalition deal with the Liberals? Well, it was just a stunt designed to deceive voters there. He said, “the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people.” Many agreed, but actions speak louder than words. The NDP leader is the weak one because he still backs the Liberals and their costly, destructive policies. He has voted for the costly Liberal carbon tax over 24 times, pushing more than two million Canadians to food banks every month. He has voted for Liberal inflationary spending, backing waste like the Prime Minister's arrive scam. He supports hard drug legalization and soft-on-crime policies that led to a 50% increase in violent crime. He has sold out Canadians by supporting the Liberals, while supercharging crime, chaos, death and destruction in our communities. Every day the Prime Minister remains in power is because of the NDP leader. We need a carbon tax election now.

Mr. Speaker, this is interesting. We found out this morning that Brookfield Asset Management, which is led by carbon tax Carney as its chair, has just moved its headquarters to New York. This is a guy who is advising the Prime Minister on economic issues, yet, seemingly, he does not have any confidence in our Canadian economy, so he is actually moving his head office to New York. I wonder if the hon. member has some comments on that.

Mr. Speaker, after nine years, NDP-Liberals are not worth the cost of housing. Common-sense Conservatives have announced a plan that would axe the federal sales tax on new homes, which has universally been seen as a game-changer. On an $800,000 house, this tax cut would save homebuyers $40,000 and $2,200 a year in mortgage payments. After nine years, the NDP-Liberals have doubled rent, doubled mortgage payments and doubled down payments. Will the NDP-Liberals axe the federal GST on housing so that more Canadians, young Canadians, can afford to buy a home?

Mr. Speaker, it takes a Conservative to get the job done, and Barrie did that before the national housing accelerator fund was announced. It has set the standard on building permits and processing, and the fact is that the City of Barrie, its mayor and its council stand to gain more from our building homes, not bureaucracy plan because we are going to be in it for the long term, just not for another couple of years. As such, why will the NDP-Liberals' costly coalition not support our GST tax cut, so more young Canadians can afford to buy a home?

Mr. Speaker, I want to circle back to an issue that was brought up earlier, which involves the Prime Minister's key economic adviser, carbon tax Carney. We found out this morning that in fact he is moving the headquarters of Brookfield Asset Management, of which he is the chair of the board, from Toronto to New York. This is the key economic adviser to the Prime Minister, who has, seemingly, zero confidence in the Canadian economy and the Canadian tax system as well. There obviously have to be some advantages for him in doing that or else he would not. I am wondering if the hon. member can comment on carbon tax Carney's decision to take his company out of Canada and move it to the United States.

Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. The RCMP is actually criminally investigating SDTC. It has received some documents, but we also know the justice department has 11,000 documents that have not been submitted to this point, as per the parliamentary order, to the law clerk. Does the hon. member think the RCMP should have all of the documentation that was ordered by Parliament, so the RCMP can do a proper and thorough investigation into just how deep this rot, this corruption, goes within the government?

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Yorkton—Melville because she brought up an interesting point about the despondency of young people, who, as I said earlier, feel lied to and let down by the government. In 2015, there was so much hope and inspiration because the new government was going to provide people with opportunity, but what we have seen over the course of the last nine years is anything but. Young people right now cannot afford a home. They are way behind where prior generations were because the cost of everything has gone up. We have young people living in their parents' basement or, worse yet, living in encampments in this country. We know that in Ontario, for example, 1,400 encampments exist today. In Halifax, the latest number I heard was 35 encampments. These are people who want the hope, prosperity and opportunity this country can provide them, but instead, and this is a perfect example, well-connected Liberals and insiders prosper while everybody else seems to be suffering.

Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I want to wish you a very happy birthday today. Are you one? Are you two? Okay, it might take up 20 minutes of my speech if I were to continue. Normally, I would stand up in this place and say it is an honour to rise on behalf of the people of Barrie—Innisfil, but the reality is such that we have an effective standoff going on in this place because of Liberal obstruction through not providing the documents that were requested back in June by Parliament. It was an order of Parliament that was reaffirmed by the Speaker. The privileges of its members have been violated by the government because there are, quite literally, tens of thousands of documents that were not submitted for them to be moved on to the RCMP. We know that there are that many documents because, publicly, we have heard from the justice department, for example, that it has over 11,000 documents that it has advised the parliamentary law clerk that the Liberals have not submitted to them. It begs the question of how many of those documents from industry and science have not been following the order of Parliament, or from Environment and Climate Change. There could be, quite literally, tens of thousands of documents that have not been submitted, as per the order of Parliament, so we can get to the bottom of this scandal. How much of that information is being hidden? How much advice from the Department of Justice, ISED and Environment and Climate Change to the board of SDTC is in those documents? What was the cost of that advice to taxpayers, and what were they discussing? How much were they trying to suppress the information for parliamentarians to not become aware of just how deep the rot and the scandal goes of $400 million being allocated by the board of directors of SDTC in 183 circumstances of this money being funnelled and approved, which we already knew were conflicts of interest? The Ethics Commissioner had already deemed it a conflict of interest. I have had a front row seat to this whole thing. It was over a year ago this very issue came to the ethics committee, and as the chair of ethics, I recall we had Annette Verschuren and Leah Lawrence appear before the committee. We actually had the minister appear before the committee, and we could tell, based on the responses to the questions from parliamentarians, with these people who were appearing in front of the ethics committee, that something stunk. Something was not right. Through the course of time and further investigation by parliamentary committees, and through an Auditor General's report that showed hundreds of millions of dollars being funnelled to board of director members who were not declaring a conflict of interest, we are now just scratching the surface on this thing. This is why it is so important for Parliament to invoke its will and its constitutional right to have these documents go to the RCMP, not to a committee. It is well known that committees are places where things go to die around here. This is criminal, I would suggest. There are many people who would suggest the same thing. This is why the RCMP needs as many documents as it can to do a proper investigation. As I said earlier, there are literally tens of thousands of documents right now that have not been provided, either through the justice department, or other departments, contrary to what Parliament's order was. That was reaffirmed by the Speaker's ruling. When we go back and we look at this over the last year, the Auditor General of Canada found that the government, led by the Prime Minister, had turned Sustainable Development Technology Canada into a slush fund for Liberal insiders. We heard this at committee when we had Doug McConnachie in front of us, who was the subject of the recording. Mr. McConnachie had said that this slush fund was on the level of the sponsorship scandal. However, we found out that we are looking at $400 million, and the sponsorship scandal, not to diminish it, under the Chrétien government was $40 million. So, this scandal is 10 times more. The Liberals knew they had a problem, they knew that the oversight was not being done in a manner that protected taxpayers, and that people were actually benefiting and gaining as a result of their involvement on the board. The Auditor General found out that SDTC gave $58 million to 10 ineligible projects that, on occasion, could not demonstrate an environmental benefit or development of green technology. There was $334 million over 186 cases to projects in which board members held a conflict of interest. Can members imagine if any of us operated in that way? Not only would our professional careers be ruined, but our personal reputations would be too. I would expect that there would be some criminal investigation into this when we have that level of rot and corruption going on, with $58 million to projects without ensuring contribution agreement terms were met; they were just giving it away. Of course, one of the companies that was a beneficiary of that was Cycle Capital, which we now know the Minister of Environment and Climate Change was a shareholder in. I checked his registry under the conflict of interest commission tonight, and although he has it in a blind trust, he is still listed as a beneficiary of Cycle Capital, and we know that it received quite a substantial amount of money as a result of what went on. The Auditor General made it clear that the blame for this scandal falls on the industry minister who did not sufficiently monitor the contracts that were given to Liberal insiders. In fact, we had, as I said earlier, the industry minister appear before our committee, and he told the ethics committee, at the time, that measures were taken to ensure that SDTC was aligned with policies. We subsequently found out that was not the case. It was implied by a whistle-blower that the industry minister had not been truthful in his testimony with the ethics committee. In fact, the whistle-blower had told us that the industry minister was well aware of what was going on within SDTC and that he turned a blind eye to what was going on. It was not until this became public and became a political issue for the government that the Liberals started actually dealing with the rot and corruption that was going on in there and, in fact, hired outside consultants to come in. At the time, the ethics committee had asked for the unredacted report. Well, guess what we got? We got a redacted report, the very thing that we are standing here today arguing against. The Speaker ruled in favour of making sure that these documents were given to Parliament in an unredacted fashion. Again, this is a government that, in 2015, came in and said that it was going to be transparent and open by default, and the Liberals have been anything but over the course of their government. In fact, we see that nobody is abiding by the freedom of information, FOI, laws anymore. At the ethics committee, we did an FOI study. We had witness after witness come in front of us telling us that it has taken years to get access to information and that the access to information system has effectively been broken, which is another thing that has been broken as a result of this government. However, we are talking about $400 million. What could $400 million go to? It could go to a lot of things right now. There are families hurting all over this country. In my community of Barrie—Innisfil, similar to what we are seeing across the country, food bank usage is rising and people are stressed. Moms right now are wondering, with mortgage renewals coming up and the cost of groceries, how they are actually going to look after their family. Much of the security blanket they had in the past under previous governments is being ripped from them as a result of the cost of living and the housing affordability and attainability crisis that is going on in this country right now. These moms, and many of them are single moms, are worried about their families. They are worried about their kids and their kids' future, and about their ability to be able to afford a home. With respect to food bank usage, we now know that two million people are visiting food banks per month. What could the $400 million that went to Liberal-connected insiders and cronies have been used for? Food bank usage has increased significantly as a result of the economic policies of the government. Two million people a month, according to a food bank study that was released just the other day, are going to food banks in Canada, a G7 country. Before I stood to speak today, I pulled the latest statistics from the Barrie Food Bank. Interestingly, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has done a study, and 30.7% of people in Simcoe County are experiencing food insecurity right now. The Barrie Food Bank had 400 first-time visitors. There are 7,000 individuals every month using the Barrie Food Bank. To put that in context, with the population of the city of Barrie, that represents 5% of people in the city of Barrie who are using the food bank right now, in a supposedly prosperous country, a G7 country like Canada. Of the 7,000 people who are using the food bank in Barrie every month, 37% of them are children. I spoke earlier about moms who are worried about affordability, about how they are going to put food on the table and about paying their mortgage and keeping a roof over their head. The numbers are an indication of just how difficult it is for families in this country. I know from speaking with representatives from the Innisfil Food Bank that its demand has increased significantly as well and is proportionate to what we have seen not just across this country but also to the city of Barrie. It is not going to get any better, because mortgages are due for renewal; roughly 900,000 are due for renewal in the next little while in this country. Mortgage rates have increased by about 30% to 40%. That means more and more families are going to continue to be under the cost of living and affordability crisis that is a wound inflicted by the government's economic policies. The other aspect is the carbon tax. We have stood here and put forward, what was it, 12, 14, 20 or 24 motions to axe the carbon tax. We are doing it not because of a political ideological advantage; we are doing it because the carbon tax is impacting people in a negative way. It is impacting the cost of the necessities of life. Everyday things people are buying, such as groceries, gas, consumables and other things, are all subject in the cascading effect of the carbon tax through the supply chain. We are hearing about the people who move the food and the goods, and about the increased cost they are seeing as a result of the carbon tax. We are seeing it among municipalities. The member from Belleville stood up today and talked about $1.5 million in additional costs to the City of Belleville based on the carbon tax alone. It does not get a rebate. I have asked the mayors from the city of Barrie and the town of Innisfil to provide us with the cost to their municipalities of the carbon tax, the impact it is having on heating recreation centres, on putting gas in police cars, putting fuel in fire trucks and heating city buildings. It is significant, and all of those costs end up getting passed down to the consumer. I know the government will say that it gives rebates. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has already shown the difficulty in that argument. Nobody has ever answered this question for me: If I were to take a dollar from somebody, only to give them a dollar back or maybe less, why am I taking that dollar in the first place? It does not make any sense, and it is just costing Canadian families from an affordability standpoint. The carbon tax is not going to stop. We are at $80 a tonne right now. The carbon tax, according to the government, is going to go up to $170 a tonne; it is going to more than double. It is going to add 61¢ a litre to the cost of fuel. This is a government that, during the election campaign in 2019, said the carbon tax was not going to go past $50 a tonne. The Liberals and their Prime Minister stood there and said that during the campaign. Now we are at $80, on our way to $170 a tonne. The information that the Liberals provided Canadians at the time, along with the reassurances they gave them, was not the truth. There was concern at that time about the cost of living crisis and the fact that the carbon tax was going to go up. They did not tell Canadians the truth. The truth is that they have gone beyond the $50 a tonne that they said they were going to go to, and it is on its way to $170. The necessities of life, groceries, fuel, goods that are shipped, and the cost to our agriculture community are all things that will have a material impact on the cost of goods going forward. They will work their way through the market as a result of the carbon tax. The other challenge that is going on right now is the housing crisis. I touched on that a little. Again, we are talking about $400 million in a scandal that went to Liberal-connected insiders and cronies. A lot of that money could have been used to offset the cost of housing. Our Conservative leader came out with what has been universally called a game-changing plan this week, which is going to see the GST taken off homes. This is among other plans in our building homes and not bureaucracy program. That would have an effect on people. It is going to have a great effect, because that saving is going to be passed on to the people who are buying the homes, the ones who can least afford it. There is a generation, right now, of young people who do not just feel lied to and let down by the government, but who are actually despondent. Ninety per cent of them are saying they do not have any hope of owning a home. That despondency is a direct result, again, of the economic policies that have been created by the government. This is one step in a multistep approach that is going to lead to the building of more homes in this country, to working with municipalities and incentivizing them to build more homes. This is not just for the short term, for two or three years, but also for the long term. This is a program that will be instituted to benefit municipalities and homebuilding for a long time to come. That is what we need to do. I am going to wrap up with the fact that this scandal and the standoff that is happening in Parliament can be resolved. These things can be resolved if the Liberals follow the will of Parliament, their constitutional obligation and the constitutional right that we have to compel documents. That was reaffirmed by you, Mr. Speaker. We could then get those documents to the RCMP so that we can truly understand and give them the investigative ability to understand just how deep and rotten the corruption is. The other thing that $400 million can do is buy subscriptions to the National Enquirer and maybe buy tinfoil hats for Liberal members who are peddling conspiracy theories in this place. They have been doing so over the last month. They know they are part of a government that is failing, that has run out of ideas and whose time is up. We not only need a carbon tax election in this country, but we also need to get back to some sense of normalcy for the sake of all Canadians. This would be a country where people are not divided, where region is not pitted against region, race against race, faith against faith, with the apparatus of the government being used to divide Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, I have had the displeasure of listening to the member peddle his conspiracy theories over the course of the last month. I think tinfoil is on sale at Giant Tiger this month if he wants to help support one of our members. The real travesty is that the will of Parliament is not being followed. The supremacy of Parliament is not being followed. That supremacy has been supported by the Speaker in his ruling. The government has not provided the documents required and asked for by Parliament so we can get to the bottom of this scandal and find out how deep the rot and corruption go with Liberal-connected insiders and cronies. That is the real travesty in what we are dealing with. Unless and until the government becomes what it said it was going to be, transparent and accountable, which it has not been, and provides the documents, this standoff will continue, with the support of other parties and the Speaker's ruling.

Mr. Speaker, all the Liberals are happy because their bellies are full, I guess. The abuse lies on the Liberals' side because it was Parliament, through a majority of parliamentarians representing a majority of Canadians, who wanted these documents, unredacted, to be presented. The Speaker ruled in favour of parliamentarians and that their privilege was being undermined by the government. The right and supremacy of Parliament is paramount. We have the authority to compel these documents. The Liberals have no authority to prevent these documents from being provided as Parliament has demanded.

Mr. Speaker, it is customary around this place that a lot of information is plucked from different sources to be used for political purposes. I am aware of what the member for Saskatoon—Grasswood is speaking about. I am not aware of what the member for Winnipeg North is speaking about in The Hill Times because, frankly, I do not read The Hill Times. I look at it this way. The majority of Canadians, represented in this place by a majority of parliamentarians, using their power and supremacy as MPs and as Parliament, have compelled the government to provide these documents in an unredacted form to allow for a proper investigation, not necessarily at committee, where things, as I said at the beginning of my speech, go to die. This borders on criminal activity, and those documents need to be given to the RCMP so a proper and thorough investigation is done to find out just how deep this corruption goes and how criminal this is. That decision of Parliament, the majority of people, not The Hill Times, not The Globe and Mail and not the National Post but members of this place, determined that we want those documents. The Speaker has reaffirmed that decision and it is up to the government to provide them. We can end this tomorrow if those 11,000-plus documents in the Department of Justice, and probably tens of thousands more in other departments, are provided to Parliament, as was demanded.

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal coalition, taxes, costs and crime are all up and now time is up. After Liberal-appointed board members of SDTC were caught funnelling 400 million tax dollars to 186 of their companies, why will the NDP-Liberals not end the cover-up today by releasing the documents, as Parliament ordered and the Speaker agreed with, so there can be accountability for the obvious corruption and potential crimes that have taken place under the costly coalition?

Mr. Speaker, the truth is that there is more proof these Liberals are not worth the cost, the crime and the corruption. Here are the facts: 186 conflicts of interest took place and 400 million tax dollars were funnelled to the companies of Liberal-appointed board members. The Speaker ruled that the evidence needs to be handed over unredacted, as Parliament has demanded. Why are the NDP-Liberals not releasing the documents? What and who are they covering up for?

Mr. Speaker, I was really interested in the hon. member's speech. She referred to an article that was posted in The Globe and Mail by Andrew Coyne today. Some of the things that Andrew Coyne talked about were the supremacy of Parliament, the history of compelling documents to be produced and the supremacy of Parliament being paramount. He also talked about a decline in democracy, which is something we have been talking about over the last nine years, including a lack of respect for institutions, such as Parliament, the judiciary and other things. I am wondering if the hon. colleague could cite some examples of the decline in democracy we have seen after nine years of the Liberal-NDP coalition.