Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the great member for Montmorency—Charlevoix today. Before I begin on the issue at hand, I want to quickly recognize our great farmers in Oxford County who are preparing for the planting season. As the weather warms up, they will be back in their fields. I just want to wish them the very best. They feed our families and they deserve love and respect for all the great work they do. To all our members who will be travelling in our rural streets and rural roads, I ask them to please be careful and look out for farm equipment and tractors, to be safe and to be vigilant. Let us keep supporting our farmers, because farmers feed our families. We are all elected by tens of thousands of Canadians who put their trust in us to come take a seat in this chamber, to be a part of our parliamentary system and to be their voice on issues that matter to them. These are issues like affordability, crime, housing or any challenge they face. It is our job to speak for them in the House and in committees. The seats we sit on in this place or in committees, we are holding in trust for our constituents. These are not our seats. This seat is not my seat. It is the seat of our residents, Oxford County. This is what we represent in this chamber every single day. Last election, the people chose a minority government. They gave this government a minority mandate, but through dirty backroom deals, through floor crossers, the government brokered a majority. The Liberals can say all they want, but the member who crossed the floor herself had said that it was good for her personally. Nothing should be good for us personally the day we take the oath of office. It should be good for our community. It should be good for the country. We are not sure what backroom deals they made, but they made those deals. They brokered a manufactured majority. However, it is still our job to be His Majesty’s loyal opposition. In this chamber, it is an act of loyalty to be in opposition. It is our job to hold them accountable for their actions. Any bill they put forward, it is our job to take a look at, to make sure they are not trying to pass things that will hurt Canadians, that will make life tougher for Canadians. A committee serves many purposes. Whether it is looking at the bill itself for substance or calling on witnesses to testify, to make better legislation or to expose corruption or the mishandling of taxpayer funds, a committee serves as a tool for us to hold them accountable. We all know the Prime Minister barely shows up for question period. His attendance record is horrible. I think the last time I read the stats, he had about a 27% attendance rate to answer any questions we have. An hon. member: It is worse now. Arpan Khanna: Mr. Speaker, it is probably worse. That is right. Every day that goes by and he does not show up, it gets worse. Former prime minister Harper showed up. Even Justin Trudeau showed up; he is worse than Justin Trudeau. They showed up. They had the decency to face this chamber and to face committees. The committees do great work. For example, we all remember the great arrive scam app that the government was held responsible for. It was discovered in committee. The great work of our committee members exposed the millions of taxpayer dollars that were wasted by the Liberal government. We remember the WE Charity scandal, where the Liberals were lining the pockets of their friends, their insiders. There was also the SNC-Lavalin affair, where they tried to pressure the Attorney General at the time. We remember the green slush fund, which was another massive abuse of power, of money. Do members remember the Aga Khan scandal, where they took money and they were found guilty of ethics violations? These were all things that happened and were exposed through committee. I know the Liberals are upset. They are very upset, because they want power. It is all about power for the Liberal government. That is all it cares about. We can forget the last Liberal government, which they claim is the new government now; let us talk about the so-called new government. We have asked their finance minister to show up at committee. This is because we all heard about the $90 billion the government wants to spend on the Alto train. The minister of finance’s partner is an Alto executive. There is $90 billion of taxpayer money going to the finance minister’s partner. The Liberals do not want to talk about the issue at committee. The minister refuses to show up. Just this morning we talked about PrescribeIT, another boondoggle by the government, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted. If it was the Liberal members’ money, they would not be spending it. It is hard-earned taxpayer dollars. We have called that out at committee. They are sending billions of dollars to entities that are tied to Brookfield. The Prime Minister is a shareholder. It is his former employer. These are all things that Canadians care about. We do not want corruption in our country. If the Liberals have nothing to hide, why not let the committees do their work? Canadians voted for a minority government. The people spoke. They knew what they wanted. They wanted the opposition to hold the government accountable. Yet again, with this new motion, the Liberals are trying to hijack those institutions as well. They will be rushing through legislation. They might go in camera, hiding everything from the public’s view. We need tools to do the job. Strong oppositions make for stronger government. When we shine the light on the government, the Liberals are forced to act and actually do their job. However, for some reason, and it is a growing trend, no matter at what level, they are afraid of questions. They are afraid to answer. This means they are afraid of Canadians. They are trying to silence the voices of Parliament. Members on different committees do a fantastic job. They do hard work, they research, and their team comes prepared to make things better, to make democracy better. I know Canadians are demotivated because when I go back to my riding, I speak to constituents and I get phone calls. They are losing faith in our democratic institutions. Some of the comments I have heard are saying, “My voice does not matter anymore.” “Why would I vote?” “Why am I a part of this system?” That creates this negative image of politicians and of Parliament, but it also puts Canadians in a very demoralized state. When Canadians are struggling to put food on the table, they want to know that the things happening in this chamber are actually in their best interest. With this government, again, it is control, censorship and shutting down Parliament. I can tell members that on this side of the House, with these great colleagues, we are not going to give up. We are not going to stop. We are going to hold the government to account every single day because that is what we were elected to do in this chamber. Whether it is through committees, questions here in this chamber, petitions or town halls, Canadians are going to see every single one of our members holding the Liberal government accountable for its actions. We are going to watch. We are going to raise concerns. We are going to be a loud and proud opposition, and we will hold the Liberals accountable. Our country is worth fighting for. Our people, who sacrifice so much, are worth fighting for. The potential of our amazing country is worth fighting for. That promise of Canada is worth fighting for. We are not going to stop. We are going to hold the Liberals accountable. We will keep that fight going right to the end.
