Debates of Nov. 28th, 2005

Steven Fletcher Charleswood—St. James, MB

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are still waiting to see real action on the health care wait times. The benchmark should have been announced ages ago. The government is going to die in a few hours. The promised fix for a generation has turned out to be the biggest broken promise in a generation.

Will the government finally announce the health care waiting benchmarks or will it be another promise made, promise broken?

Ujjal Dosanjh Minister of Health

Mr. Speaker, it is quite ironic that we were going to announce those wait times benchmarks in December. All opposition parties now want to go into an election campaign and then they ask where are the wait time benchmarks. They are coming.

For the hon. member, we shall take no lessons on health care from a party which interest is to maximize private health care. The member himself is on record saying that we should not be hung up on universality. We are going to stand up for universality in public health care in Canada.

Ruby Dhalla Brampton—Springdale, ON

Mr. Speaker, Canada is one of the very few countries in the world to show leadership and to offer compassionate care benefits for workers. The government recently recognized the opportunity to address the issue of the definition of caregiver and to offer hope to those Canadians in time of need.

Could the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development please tell the House the update as to the expected changes for this very important program?

Belinda Stronach Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal

Mr. Speaker, the government has recognized that we can make improvements to compassionate care to reach more Canadians.

I am pleased to inform the House that we have made significant improvements to the compassionate care benefit. The benefit will be expanded beyond immediate family members. Starting next January, Canadians will now be able to designate a person of their choice to care for them. This means not only temporary income support, but also job security. This is great news for Canadians.

Scott Brison Minister of Public Works and Government Services

Mr. Speaker, members have reached a new low over there. The fact is the Liberal Party of Canada has paid every penny received inappropriately back to the Canadian taxpayer, based on an analysis of Justice Gomery's report. At the end of the day, we Liberals stand with Canadians who believe in the work and the analysis of Justice Gomery who heard from 172 witnesses and reviewed over 28 million pages of documents.

Justice Gomery is interested in getting to the truth. That is what Canadians want. They do not want to go to the polls, which is all the Conservatives want.

Helena Guergis Simcoe—Grey, ON

Mr. Speaker, on top of its culture of entitlement, the government has earned a reputation for its culture of secrecy.

Rose-Marie Ur Middlesex—Kent—Lambton, ON

What about your jewellery?

Helena Guergis Simcoe—Grey, ON

The access to information commissioner has noted that the federal government remains seized with a culture of distrust and resistance to the law that is supposed to give the public access to government documents. Canadians want to get to the bottom of Liberal corruption.

Could the current government assure us that should Canadians vote for a change of government in the next election, there will be no systematic shredding of documents and destruction of records?