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Marilène Gill

Replying to James Bezan (Conservative)
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her intervention on Bill C-31 at report stage. Included in Bill C-31 is division 16, which deals with the Defence Investment Agency, which would now be replicated in Bill C-40. This actually was the second iteration of the BIA. We would now have, under Bill C-40, a federal Crown corporation. Is the member at all concerned that what the Liberals are trying to do is put more power into the hands of a minister, unnamed at this point in time, who would be able to exercise more political interference in procurement, stop competitions and ultimately undermine our Canadian Armed Forces by not buying what it actually needs?”

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Mr. Speaker, this may come as a surprise, but I completely agree with what my colleague just said. I would add, for the first part, the whole issue of the bill. The government is introducing another Crown corporation. This feels like lack of planning to me. It amazes me how the government introduces something and, at the same time, introduces a new bill because it may not have fully thought through what it wanted to do in the first place and is working on two things at once. It seems to me the government is doing things on the fly. As for the second part, I think giving more power to a small group or an individual is a total non-starter. We want to see accountability. We are here to work for the people, and they want us to be transparent. This is about trust, so I agree with my colleague.