Mr. Speaker, it is ironic then that the Prime Minister said yesterday on page 13370 of Hansard , ``I discussed this with the ethics counsellor yesterday morning''. Why would that be necessary then?
It clearly states on page 95 of the Liberal red book that the government will appoint an independent ethics counsellor who will report directly to Parliament. Instead what we have is an ethics counsellor who rules on ethical issues after the fact and who reports only to the Prime Minister. It is yet another red book broken promise.
Given the ethics watchdog's obvious lack of teeth, will the Prime Minister honour the red book commitment and make the ethics counsellor responsible directly to Parliament, not to himself?