Madam Speaker, virtual Parliament was meant to be a temporary measure to deal with a worldwide pandemic, but it has the effect of reducing the accountability of government. That is fine with the current Prime Minister and his cabal, but it should not be fine with Canadians.
As workers across the country are back at work, is it not a little rich for the government to insist that it is not safe to do our work in person? We are no more special than the rest of Canadians. Trying to represent our constituents from the comfort of our homes just does not cut it. Continuing with a hybrid parliament diminishes this institution.
Conservatives believe it is time to get democracy working again. The Prime Minister and his NDP-Liberal government have demonstrated repeatedly that they are willing to do anything to avoid the oversight of Parliament. Virtual sittings reduce accountability and transparency in our democratic parliamentary system. We have seen it clearly in question period, where answers to serious questions are obfuscated at best.
This needs to end now, so we can bring back a real democratic Parliament to Canadians.