Kyle Seeback

Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 31 wordsthere is an old saying that is very appropriate for what we are about to go through in the House of Commons and something I want all Canadians to think about.Procedure Reasoning · 14 wordsIt is that when they show us who they are, we should believe them.Off point Claims · 42 wordsOne hour into the debate to give the Liberals a majority on all committees, a majority which was not obtained through the results of the last election, they brought forward a closure motion.⁶ A closure motion is used to close down debate. Procedure · 8 wordsWhy am I talking about closing down debate?Procedure Positioning · 11 wordsIt is because the Liberal government has a strong authoritarian streak.Positioning Claims · 10 wordsIt has been found guilty of invoking the Emergencies Act.⁵ Positioning · 11 wordsIt has used parliamentary overreach at every single opportunity it has.Positioning Claims · 101 wordsIn fact, earlier in the week, we were conducting a debate on Bill C-22 about lawful access, a very serious piece of legislation that sets the parameters for which police and other authorities can access Canadians’ digital footprint. Every time a Conservative member got up in this chamber to debate the issue and make points about the problems with the legislation, the Liberal deputy House leader got up and accused them of filibustering and obstruction. If that is not bad enough, right after he would accuse Conservatives of engaging in filibuster and obstruction, a Liberal member would get up and speak. Positioning · 82 wordsWe can see the authoritarian streak in the Liberal Party every single day when we engage in debate in the House of Commons. If a Conservative member or an opposition member from the Bloc or the NDP gets up to speak, that is obstruction and filibustering.Off point However, if a Liberal member gets up, it is somehow a wonderful thing that is happening in this place. This is how Liberals engage. This is the respect they have for the democratically elected opposition parties.PositioningOff point Claims · 15 wordsWhile they were in a minority status, we were able to keep that in check, Positioning · 7 wordsand we did that in many ways.Positioning Claims · 12 wordsFor example, Bill C-22 came from a piece of legislation, Bill C-2, ¹²Positioning · 8 wordswhich contained all kinds of Liberal authoritarian overreach.Positioning Claims · 108 wordsThrough opposition to that, the bill was split.⁷Off point Now that they are going to reorganize committees, the opportunity to do that would get significantly smaller. It would almost not exist because they could do such things as what they have just done. This is a motion to radically change the composition of committees. It would not just be adding one extra Liberal member, as would be appropriate; they would be adding two. They would not just be adding two extra members to the committees that they say are the ones to get things done, such as finance or others; they would be taking control of the oversight committees. Procedure · 25 wordsWhy is that important? Why would I say this is something that Canadians should be very concerned about? I will give a couple of examples.Procedure Claims · 26 wordsRight now, at the ethics committee, which is one of the oversight committees, the Liberals have been filibustering for I do not know how many days. Procedure · 28 wordsWhat are they filibustering over? Is it something important, a critical piece of legislation, a bill they think the opposition parties are going to use to destroy Canada?Procedure Claims · 67 wordsNo. What they are filibustering and preventing from happening is the finance minister’s going to committee to testify on his clear conflict of interest with respect to the Alto project.⁸ It is a clear conflict of interest. He has voted on issues that deal with Alto.¹³ Alto was in the budget, ²and the finance minister’s partner is an executive at Alto.¹ This is a clear ethical violation. Reasoning · 11 wordsThe minister should be held to account and go to committee, Claims · 99 wordsbut the Liberals have been filibustering for days to prevent that from happening. Now what are they doing? They are giving themselves a majority on that committee so they do not have to filibuster away accountability anymore. No, they do not have to bother with that because now they have the votes. They just say the minister clearly violated the conflict of interest laws and too bad, he is not going to committee to testify because they have the votes. Right now, on my committee, the HUMA committee, they have been filibustering, for two days, a document production order.⁹ Procedure · 5 wordsWhy do we want documents?Procedure Claims · 63 wordsWe want documents to look into the cost overruns of another Liberal technology project. Everybody remembers ArriveCAN, the tiny project that went massively over budget. This is another IT project that has gone wildly bad under the Liberal government. All we have asked for is for the Liberals to produce some documents. They have spent the last two meetings filibustering that document request.¹⁰ Procedure · 2 wordsGuess what.Procedure Claims · 71 wordsIf the motion passes, they do not have to filibuster any more. They will have the votes to deny accountability, to deny transparency and to do whatever they want. That is the real reason why we are having changes to committees. They do not like the scrutiny that committees provide. We have had all kinds of Liberal members wax poetic about the wonders of committee and the work that committees do. Procedure · 2 wordsGuess what.Procedure Claims · 76 wordsThey do amazing work when there is a minority government and the government can be held to account. We can get the documents that we need. We can have the ministers who have engaged in unethical conduct come before committee and answer for that unethical conduct. We can look at pieces of legislation that have terrible government overreach and we can say that they will not pass without amendment. All of that will now be gone. Procedure · 17 wordsAs if that is not bad enough, I will go back to what we did earlier today.Procedure Claims · 95 wordsIt was one hour into the debate, a debate about these Liberals taking control of all of the committees so they can ram through their legislative agenda any way they want, with little or no scrutiny. I say that because they can do very simple things. They can bring a programming motion when they put a piece of legislation in the House of Commons, ³and they can program the amount of time it will spend at committee and have it brought back. They can vote down every single amendment the opposition might want to do. Reasoning · 22 wordsThis is a very important debate. This should be debated. They should have extended hours in the House to have this debate. Procedure · 5 wordsInstead, what did they do?Procedure Claims · 15 wordsThey moved closure. After one hour, they said they have had enough of the debate. Procedure · 13 wordsIt goes back to what I said when I first opened this speech.Procedure Reasoning · 8 wordsWhen someone says who they are, believe them. Positioning · 13 wordsThey do not believe in an opposition that can hold them to account.Positioning Reasoning · 15 wordsThey do not, or they would not be resetting the numbers on the accountability committees. Claims · 101 wordsIf they wanted to, they could say that they are taking control of committees to get their legislative agenda passed. I could maybe understand that, especially if it were six members instead of seven. The committees would then be where they should be and the chair would have to break the tie. It is a Liberal chair. The Liberal chair would break the tie in their favour. They are going to seven, ¹¹which reduces the opportunity for opposition members to speak at committee. They are also doing this for the accountability committees: public accounts, access to information, ethics and government operations. Procedure · 13 wordsWe wonder why they are doing it? We do not have to wonder.Procedure Positioning · 25 wordsThey are doing it to avoid scrutiny. They are doing it to avoid accountability. They are not Liberals who believe in any of those things.Positioning Procedure · 15 wordsI am saying this very clearly right now and I am talking directly to Canadians: ProcedurePromise · 63 wordsWatch what happens over the next year with the Liberals and watch what happens at committee. There will be constant motions to shut down investigations at committee. There will be constant motions in the chamber to shut down debate. There will be programming motions so that things barely go to committee at all. They will not be held to account for ethical violations. Positioning · 13 wordsWe know that where there is a Liberal government, there are ethical violations.PositioningUnearned certainty Claims · 14 wordsWe all remember the ad scam, the green slush fund, arrive scam, name it.⁴ Positioning · 42 wordsWhen there is money involved, the Liberals get their hands involved and all of that will be silenced by the Liberals. I think it is an outrage that they would use a closure motion on a motion to take control of committees.Positioning Claims · 19 wordsIt tells us exactly what they are going to do and exactly the kind of government they will be, Positioning · 7 wordsand it is not what Canadians wanted.Positioning