Goldie Ghamari - March 04, 2019


Speech： Select Committee on Financial Transparency


Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

127.416245

Word count

1,738

Sentence count

98


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Mr. Speaker, when governments pass legislation to make their own accounting rules that serve
00:00:14.340 to obfuscate the impact of their financial decisions, their financial statements become
00:00:20.060 unreliable. That is a direct quote from the Auditor General of Ontario. It is the first
00:00:27.180 thing that she writes in her 53-page report.
00:00:32.420 Mr. Speaker,
00:00:34.520 This morning, Minister Fideli moved that a select committee
00:00:39.280 on financial transparency be appointed to consider and
00:00:43.220 report to the House its observations and recommendations
00:00:46.740 with respect to the report submitted by the Independent Financial
00:00:51.160 Commission of Inquiry, and that the committee investigate
00:00:55.100 and report on the accounting practices, decision-making, and policy objectives of the previous government
00:01:01.020 or any other aspect of the report that the committee deems relevant,
00:01:05.620 and that the committee have the power to send for persons, papers, and things.
00:01:11.280 And that's an important point, Mr. Speaker, that I will be referring back to.
00:01:16.380 And that the committee be composed of six members of the party forming government,
00:01:20.740 three members of the official opposition,
00:01:22.500 and that the committee be authorized to meet at the call of the Chair
00:01:26.260 and that it be given priority to use the amethyst room for its meetings
00:01:30.560 and that it shall present, or if the House is not meeting,
00:01:34.720 release by depositing with the Clerk of Assembly
00:01:37.080 its interim report by November 1, 2018
00:01:41.440 and its final report by December 13, 2018.
00:01:47.180 Mr. Speaker, we campaigned on a promise
00:01:51.980 to be efficient and to be reliable and to respect taxpayer dollars.
00:01:58.900 And for one, Mr. Speaker, I am very excited and I'm very proud
00:02:03.780 to see this committee is going to be working very hard
00:02:07.600 to come up with an interim report in just six weeks.
00:02:17.300 And to come up with its final report, Mr. Speaker,
00:02:21.700 in two months this is a government that's here to work hard for the people mr speaker
00:02:28.180 we have started early we have been non-stop and we're going to continue moving forward again mr
00:02:35.060 speaker i'm going to echo my statements from yesterday my comments and that after 15 years
00:02:40.180 of liberal stagnation we need to get ontario back on track and this committee thank you
00:02:50.900 And this committee, Mr. Speaker, is just another step in that process.
00:02:55.460 It's just another way to move forward and to get things done.
00:03:01.060 Because, Mr. Speaker, we have a very serious situation here in Ontario.
00:03:07.720 First, our public accounts.
00:03:10.380 The Liberals claimed that there was a $600 million surplus in the 2017-2018 budget.
00:03:16.240 However, at that time, we learned that instead there was a $3.7 billion deficit.
00:03:24.980 Second, the Auditor-General has approved and signed off on these public accounts in 2017 and 2018.
00:03:33.400 In fact, this is the first time that she had signed the government's books with a clean slate in three years.
00:03:41.480 Previously, Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government had only a qualified opinion, and a qualified
00:03:51.400 opinion means that there were outstanding, unanswered questions by the government.
00:03:57.160 Mr. Speaker, how can there be any questions outstanding?
00:04:01.340 Minister Fidelli said it best.
00:04:02.940 This is accounting.
00:04:04.140 The numbers either add up or they don't.
00:04:06.880 There's no ambiguity.
00:04:07.880 There are no grey areas.
00:04:10.300 You look at the numbers, you add it up, and you need to balance the budget at the end
00:04:13.820 of the day.
00:04:14.980 So why was there any ambiguities?
00:04:17.980 Why was the Liberal government refusing to answer questions and refusing to give the
00:04:24.360 Auditor-General all of the necessary documents that she needed in order to make a proper
00:04:31.540 statement on the budget?
00:04:34.520 In fact, Mr. Speaker, we have found that this past week, despite their claims of a surplus,
00:04:40.540 we are instead facing a $15 billion deficit.
00:04:45.980 And that's shameful, Mr. Speaker, because that deficit is being paid for by the people of Ontario.
00:04:53.640 That is money that people are paying in taxes,
00:04:57.560 and instead of putting that money towards services like health care or education or anything else,
00:05:04.220 That money is going to pay off interest.
00:05:08.640 The Liberals also claimed, Mr. Speaker, that their budget had $1.4 billion of efficiencies.
00:05:17.080 However, the Commission's findings showed that, again, there were absolutely zero efficiencies in their budget.
00:05:24.000 There was nothing in the budget relating to any potential savings,
00:05:27.520 and there was nothing in the budget outlining any ambitious programs that could lead to such efficiencies.
00:05:34.220 so mr speaker that's the purpose of this select committee it's to get to the bottom
00:05:40.760 about how somebody could say that there was a 3.7 billion dollar deficit when it wasn't true or how
00:05:48.620 somebody could say that there was a 15 billion dollar deficit when it wasn't true but the real
00:05:55.940 issue mr speaker is not about who said what and it's not about whether or not the 3.7
00:06:02.460 was accurate or the $15 billion was accurate.
00:06:05.180 The real issue is the breadth and depth that the Liberals went through
00:06:12.040 to make sure we could never put this financial map backwards
00:06:15.800 and put it back together to understand exactly and precisely what they did.
00:06:27.100 Well, Mr. Speaker, their plan failed.
00:06:29.560 and this select committee that we are going to be establishing that select committee is going to go
00:06:38.980 back and it's going to retrace the steps that the government previous government made and that
00:06:44.780 brings me to that point i made mr speaker about the committee having the power to send for persons
00:06:50.620 papers and things because unlike the previous government we campaigned on responsibility
00:06:58.120 and accountability and trust.
00:07:01.280 And we are going to get to the bottom of what happened.
00:07:04.460 And, Mr. Speaker, the people that the committee calls,
00:07:08.700 they will not be able to rely on ministerial privilege
00:07:11.480 or confidentiality or anything like that.
00:07:14.540 When this committee calls for a person
00:07:17.520 or calls for a document or calls for anything else,
00:07:21.840 they will have to bring it.
00:07:23.080 It will have to be brought to them.
00:07:28.120 Mr. Speaker, Premier Ford announced that initial commission of inquiry back in July,
00:07:37.280 and it's not uncommon in politics for a new government to call the previous government's
00:07:42.320 numbers into question. It's something that's done all the time. But, Mr. Speaker, what
00:07:49.360 happened under this last government is very different than any other new government taking
00:07:55.540 over. All you have to do is look at the Auditor General's last report on the state of government.
00:08:01.300 She reviewed the Liberals' pre-election report on finances, and she concluded
00:08:06.020 that their numbers were not a reasonable presentation of Ontario's finances.
00:08:12.420 That's really serious to hear from an Auditor General. She also followed up on why the numbers
00:08:18.660 don't add up she said the government is making up its own accounting rules and then mr speaker
00:08:26.100 she used terminology like conceal bogus deceptive and unreliable imagine that mr speaker the auditor
00:08:36.380 general called the previous liberal government deceptive and unreliable and i think mr speaker
00:08:44.200 that message was heard loud and clear not just by our party not just by the official opposition
00:08:51.380 but by ontarians all across the province and we see that in the election results mr speaker we
00:08:58.640 see that on june 7 ontarians made a choice and they decided that they deserve better and indeed
00:09:06.860 they do deserve better than a government that is deceptive and unreliable if i could just for
00:09:15.040 clarification as i recall the auditor general said the practices were that not not the government
00:09:23.260 the practices of the government were deceptive and unreliable yes and mr speaker what we're
00:09:31.560 witnessing right now is without precedent in recent politics, and this has never happened.
00:09:37.540 When taken together, the conclusions of the Auditor General and the Commission of Inquiry
00:09:42.520 represent a scathing indictment of how Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals abused the public's trust.
00:09:50.140 They pursued a reckless spree of debt-financed spending and then deliberately deployed a
00:09:55.340 series of accounting tricks to hide the resulting cost from the public. This result is the crippling
00:10:04.220 hidden debt that is only now being brought forward. It puts our very future in jeopardy.
00:10:10.840 And I echo the comments of my colleague from Kitchener-Conestoga in that what they have done is putting our very future in jeopardy.
00:10:34.180 I don't have five children myself, Mr. Speaker.
00:10:36.840 God bless his wife.
00:10:39.100 I can't imagine what she's gone through, but it's putting the future of all of our
00:10:46.820 children, our grandchildren and their grandchildren in jeopardy.
00:10:52.900 The safety nets that we need are being used up or were being used up by the Liberal government.
00:11:03.040 So Mr. Speaker, this select committee is going to get to the bottom of who knew what
00:11:08.040 and who did what about it, and we're finally going to learn the truth, because that is
00:11:13.800 what Ontarians expect of us, and that is what we owe it to them as their government.
00:11:27.880 What happened, Mr. Speaker, should never again happen in Ontario.
00:11:33.920 In fact, it should never happen again anywhere in Canada.
00:11:39.800 And their accountability, the Liberal Party's accountability, did not end on Election Day.
00:11:46.340 It began on Election Day, Mr. Speaker.
00:11:54.340 It began on Election Day when Premier Ford said, people deserve answers, and we are here
00:12:00.060 to ensure that the people get those answers, because we are a government for the people.
00:12:12.860 Mr. Speaker, it's important as well to acknowledge the divide between what the independent legislative
00:12:20.440 officers are saying that the government is doing and what the government says that it
00:12:25.360 is doing, and that divide grew very, very large last year.
00:12:31.360 Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be part of the Committee on Public Accounts, and I look forward
00:12:37.740 to working with the Auditor-General and establishing a strong and positive relationship between
00:12:43.100 government and our independent legislative officers, because at the end of the day,
00:12:49.220 we need to work together to do what's best for the people of Ontario.
00:12:53.840 We need to work together to ensure that we are being responsible with their money.
00:13:00.160 Because it is not our money.
00:13:01.940 It's not something that we can toy around and play around and spend at whim.
00:13:06.760 This is the money that is earned from people who work long hours, sometimes back-breaking
00:13:12.980 labour, and they need to pinch every penny.
00:13:17.840 At the same time, we need to respect that, and we need to make sure it's taken care
00:13:22.220 of.
00:13:23.220 why I support this committee and motion seven. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:13:31.060 Thank you. And I would remind all members when we're speaking of a former premier or another
00:13:38.120 member.