Conservatives plan to go after Liberals over ethics breaches when House of Commons reconvenes

With the House of Commons resuming for the fall session bringing Members of Parliament back to Ottawa, it will allow the Conservatives, as the Official Opposition, to return to our work holding the federal Liberal government accountable for its governance, legislation and policies.

Conservative MPs were prepared to continue working at Parliamentary committees throughout the summer, but Liberal and NDP MPs, in June, voted down efforts to hold more committee meetings over the summer.

Some committees were able to continue their work of investigating serious ethical breaches.

Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts were successful in passing a motion calling on the Auditor General of Canada (AG) to conduct a full "value for money and performance" audit on work done by Sustainable Development and Technology Canada (SDTC) since Jan. 1, 2017.

An AG's earlier report on this issue examined dozens of projects SDTC funded, finding $59 million was given to projects that never should have been awarded any money at all. The AG also found nearly $76 million in taxpayer money was paid out in 90 cases where there was a potential conflict of interest, with a government-appointed SDTC board of directors approving public funding to companies they own. The case for expanding the AG's investigation is clearly warranted.

A Liberal MP stated the requested expansion of the AG's investigation would "demolish public trust". However, public trust in the government's management of SDTC was demolished when, instead of digging into the concerns surrounding SDTC, the minister chose to shut down SDTC's funding entirely in the wake of the AG's initial review.

The Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner did investigate deeper and found that the Liberal-appointed SDTC board chair violated Section 6(1) and 21 of the Conflict-of-Interest Act, finding her actions “furthered her private interests.”

Conservatives will continue to push for full accountability for the often-called "green slush fund" the government allowed the SDTC to become on its watch.

Similarly, we will also continue to push for accountability in the continuing ethics investigation of the Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Miniser, Randy Boissonnault.

Boissonnault was the co-founder of the company Global Health Imports, which received millions of dollars in federal government grants and contracts, including during his time as the associate finance minister.

Under ethics law, ministers are prohibited from operating or managing companies they own while in government. However, text messages unearthed by Conservative members on the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics suggest the opposite—that the minister continued actively managing his company.

Text messages between Boissonault's business partner and someone named "Randy [being] in Vancouver" on Sept. 6, 2022, when it is known the minister was attending a government's cabinet retreat in the same city.

That followed Global News' reporting Boissonnault's former business partners were texting a "Randy" about deals involving a $500,000 payment from the federal government.

Both the minister and his business partner initially claimed it was another company employee but the business partner admitted under questioning that was a lie and the company had not employed any other Randy at that time.

Boissonnault's business partner claimed multiple references to "Randy" were all the fault of autocorrect and refused to disclose the name of the other allusive person. Conservatives will continue to investigate the minister regarding these serious potential breaches of ethics law.

The prime minister once said, "positive leadership creates a virtuous circle." After several breaches of ethics rules by his government, including multiple breaches himself and from various ministers over the past nine years, questions must be asked about how his leadership has set the tone for an attitude of lack of accountability and poor ethical standards in the current government.

Conservatives will make the case in this fall session of Parliament for more robust rules and empowering the ethics commissioner as it applies to MPs and Senators to ensure compliance.

With Parliament resuming, the government can no longer avoid being asked difficult questions about issues important to Canadians, such as cost of living, housing, tax increases, crime and, conflict of interest and ethics scandals.

I'd like to hear from you:

Are you concerned about the ethical violations and ongoing scandals of the Liberal government?

Please reach out to 250-470-5075 or [email protected] if have any thoughts to share – on this issue or others - or if you need assistance with any federal programs.

Tracy Gray is the Conservative MP for Kelowna-Lake Country.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.