Mr. Speaker, I have been sitting here all day attentively listening to the debate and the questions and comments from both sides of the House. I have also received several emails and phone calls from the good people of my riding of Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, who, quite frankly, are a little perplexed that something that appears to be a no-brainer, a very simple motion, is creating such animosity from the current and old and tired Liberal government.

It is quite simple. The Auditor General has produced a very scathing report on how the Liberal government managed a procurement contract, giving some $63.7 million to two people working out of a basement to produce an app that did not accomplish what it set out to accomplish. In fact, the Auditor General goes further in pointing to many irregularities in the way the contract was managed. I dare say the word “fraud” is something we have heard in this House today, and it is true. This company, GC Strategies, took some $64 million and did not produce what it was supposed to produce. The ask of the government by all parliamentarians elected to represent communities from coast to coast to coast is very simple. It is to get the taxpayer money back. We have a responsibility, a fiduciary duty, I would add, as elected members of Parliament to ensure that the taxpayer is made whole and that the money is given back. Also, the company that perpetrated this fraud on the Canadian people should be banned from contracts for life.

Having sat here all day, I ask myself about the purported new Liberal government. It is not new, because I look across the aisle and see all the same faces on the front bench. The Prime Minister certainly made sure to appoint a lot of the people who had a lot of experience dealing with scandals like this over the past 10 years.

There are a few that come to mind. There was the SNC-Lavalin scandal. Two ministers on the Liberal side had the courage to speak truth to power, and they were tossed out. I would remind the House that this was the case in which the former prime minister and his office decided to interfere with the judiciary in holding accountable a company that itself had perpetrated fraudulent activity.

Then, the same Liberals we see here vociferously stood up and defended the We Charity scandal, a billion-dollar boondoggle, with absolutely no opportunity for debate, communication or even presentation in this House of democracy, of the Canadian people.

Last year, the House was besieged with a green slush fund scandal, when the same Liberals purporting to be new today refused to produce a list of who got over $1 billion dollars in funding. Of course, we all know who got the money. It was the same old Liberal cronies, friends and supporters who got the money. Otherwise, they would have no reason for not producing a list of those names.

That is not to mention the ethics violations of the former Liberal prime minister, the only prime minister in the history of Canada to have been found guilty of ethics violations by an officer of Parliament, the Ethics Commissioner.

To hear from the Liberals today that they decided last Friday, on the eve of the Auditor General presenting her report, to take action to ensure that GC Strategies is—

Costas Menegakis

Transcript

Government Orders

Discussions (0)