Parliament to Investigate Liberal Failure to Act in Afghanistan’s Collapse
Plus the Mahogany meet-and-greet, the diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, the government's failure to account for $600 billion in spending, and Conservatives introduce motion on housing
Conservatives Holding the Liberal Government Accountable by Monitoring their Work in Afghanistan
This week, a Conservative opposition day motion to create a special parliamentary committee to study the government’s response to the crisis in Afghanistan was passed by the House of Commons by a tally of 179-156, with two Liberal MPs voting for the conservative initiative. The motion will put the government’s evacuation response under the spotlight and their treatment of our Afghan allies under review. The Liberal government had months to prepare for an eventual withdrawal of U.S forces from Afghanistan, following U.S President Joe Biden’s announcement in April of this year to withdraw all troops by September 2021. Despite this, the Liberals called for an unnecessary federal election on the same day the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, fell to the Taliban and the entire country was thrown into disarray. Promises during the election to resettle up to 40,000 Afghan refugees following the country's collapse have been thrown to the wayside. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser now says it will take two years to reach that number. So far, only 4,040 refugees have arrived.
While the Canadian mission ended in 2014, interpreters and allies who fought alongside Canadian soldiers for over a decade were left behind. We also left behind many Afghans who were staunch allies in civic society to Western values and the spread of democracy. As Kabul fell, we watched from Canada in horror as people ran down runways and families tried all available means to escape Afghanistan. The special committee will now critically evaluate the evacuation process for Afghan refugees and obtain answers on the Liberal government's failure to respond to the crisis.
Special committees are appointed by Parliament to carry out specific inquiries, taskings, or studies that are of importance to its members and the Canadian public more broadly. Just like the Canada-China parliamentary committee in the last Parliament and the past work of the Electoral Reform Committee, special committees increase accountability and transparency by calling for witnesses, ordering the release of government documents, and producing an authoritative report on the matters they are assigned to review. The government is obliged to respond to recommendations made by committees. Without the work done by parliamentary committees, the federal government can skirt responsibility and accountability for many important issues, such as federal spending, national security, or potential corruption. The depth of the scandal surrounding the firing of Jody Wilson-Raybould as attorney general or the government’s cover-up of sexual assault allegations against General Jonathan Vance are just two examples of how significant matters of public interest were raised and investigated in parliamentary committees. This is the essential work of Parliament giving itself the tools to inspect and hold accountable government officials for their work. It must now be utilized to examine the depth of the government’s failure to stand with those who stood with us in Afghanistan, and how their evacuation had abandoned them.
Mahogany Parade of Lights
Thank you to all who came out Saturday at the Mahogany Parade of Lights to have a chat over a cup of hot chocolate. One of the great difficulties of elected officials is ensuring their constituent’s voices are heard and conveyed in Parliament. I heard from many constituents over the past weeks about your concerns surrounding the higher cost of living, provincial vaccine mandates, and other issues of concern to the community. Your concerns and feedback will be on my mind as we enter 2022 and a new Parliament.
Boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing
This week, I joined other lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China in calling for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. The Beijing government has been engaging in systemic repression and persecution of the Uyghur minority and other Turkic groups in Xinjiang, along with the suppression of democratic voices in Hong Kong. Over one million Uyghurs have been interned in concentration camps and many have been subjected to forced labour, mass sterilization, and rape within its confines. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole had long called for the government to support the relocation of the Games and had been calling for a diplomatic boycott for many days. Only after the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand announced they would not send a political delegation to the Games did the Prime Minister make the same announcement. Canada should no longer be at the back of diplomatic action against the central government in Beijing and stand far more strongly against human right abuses in the country.
$600 billion in public spending unaccounted for by the government
More cover-ups by the Liberal government. More than eight months after the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year, the government has not released a full account of how it spent more than $600-billion last year during the peak of Canada’s pandemic response. Despite this, the government is asking lawmakers to approve billions more in new spending in the brief sitting we have had in the new Parliament. There has been a troubling lack of transparency over the government’s spending programs, which have often been misused. The $100 billion Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy was used by companies that turned massive profits even during the pandemic, such as Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Lululemon. Government aid to Air Canada was used for stock buybacks. Now, it was reported that CERB money was used by criminals for the purchase of illegal guns. Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux expressed his concerns before the Senate that “the government is seeking Parliament's approval of this additional spending without yet revealing what was spent the year prior.” The continued cover-up is unacceptable and Conservatives will continue holding the government to account for its failures to uphold transparency.
Conservatives call upon the government to take action on the housing crisis
This week, my Conservative colleague, Matt Jeneroux, put forward an opposition motion in Parliament to address the housing crisis in Canada. The motion would force the federal government to not introduce a capital gains tax on the sale of your principal residence. The motion also introduced two other housing policies that would increase the housing supply and make housing more affordable for Canadians. Housing prices have increased over 20% this year alone, and Canadians can no longer afford the government’s incompetence on this issue. Unfortunately, both the Liberals and the NDP voted down this fairly simple expression of Parliament’s will to spare principal residences of Canadians from potential future taxation. While the Liberal government says it has no intentions to tax the equity in your home, it has so far refused to be constrained by a vote in Parliament or by legislation thus leaving the door open to a policy reversal – just as they did when they promised small budget deficits of $10 billion in 2015 and ran deficits twice that size for years prior to the pandemic. Homeowners should continue to worry about what the hidden agenda may be of the Liberal government.