Debates of Dec. 12th, 2012

Foreign Investment

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order. The hon. Leader of the Opposition has the floor.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Why is the Prime Minister ignoring business leaders? Why is he ignoring his own MPs? Why is he making it up as he goes along? Why does he not respect the will of Parliament and bring the law here to be debated openly and amended to protect Canada and our resources?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, The Gong Show over there continues.

The Leader of the Opposition presented a motion in which he purported that his party represented the views of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. Now he gets up and pretends to represent the views of the Alberta and Canadian business communities. I can give a list a mile long of people who supported this government's decision.

What they do not support is shutting down the oil sands, as the NDP favours. They do not support a carbon tax. They do support the responsible and balanced approach of this government.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, we did present a motion supporting the Alberta and Calgary Chamber of Commerce, and Conservatives voted for it, because they know that both the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and the NDP are right on this issue.

Now the Prime Minister admits that a deal like Nexen is not a net benefit for Canada and that foreign state-owned enterprises should not own a controlling stake in major oil sands companies. If that is true, why did he approve Nexen? What were the exceptional circumstances for giving away our raw natural resources to a foreign power?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, of course, the reason we supported the express position of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce was that it was virtually identical to the position of the Conservative government. It was, of course, not at all the position of the New Democratic Party.

The Leader of the Opposition started off his questioning today by saying that we were somehow blocking necessary foreign investment and now has concluded by saying we should shut it all down. That is why Canadians favour the balanced and sensible economic management of this government.

National Defence

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Chamber of Commerce said, and what our motion said—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, order. This is taking up a lot of time. The hon. Leader of the Opposition has the floor. We have to get through the questions or we will have to find the time somewhere else.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Amend the law, clarify the net advantage for Canada, the net benefit for Canada, and reciprocity: none of those things have been done.

That is what the Calgary Chamber of Commerce said, and that is what we said.

Fearmongering and buck-passing is what the F-35 file has been about. It has been a debacle since day one. When is the government going to come clean with Canadians and admit that it has misled Canadians from day one on the F-35 file?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. The Auditor General, as we know well, released a report in which he questioned some of the assumptions and some of the work that had been done by officials on the details. Therefore, the Minister of Public Works and the Minister of National Defence have worked with an expert panel to put together more information on this. Obviously, that will be released shortly. However, we remain fully committed to ensuring that our air force has the planes it needs to do its job when the CF-18 begins to be retired later in this decade.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the report is clear: the cost of the F-35s continues to skyrocket.

The program has been a fiasco from the beginning: no tendering process, no clear requirements, and a bunch of ministers passing the buck in an attempt to hide their incompetence and their arrogance.

Are the Conservatives going to repeat the same mistakes with their famous seven-point plan, or will they commit to launching a real competitive process in order to get the best plane for taxpayers' dollars?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the government has not spent any public money on the acquisition of any aircraft, and we are committed to ensuring that the air force has the right aircraft when it needs them at the end of this decade.

At the same time, we are contributing to the development of this aircraft, which is benefiting the aerospace industry in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. We are committed to helping our industry.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it seems that the F-35 issue is a fiasco that has happened without anyone taking any responsibility for it in the government. The Prime Minister says that a few officials may not have provided enough information, but that is not, in fact, what either the Parliamentary Budget Officer or the Auditor General of Canada had to say. What they said was that information in the hands of the government was not brought forward to Parliament, was not brought forward to those making decisions and was not brought forward in a timely fashion in a way to end the incompetence, the contempt, and in fact, the corruption of a process that no one on that side wants to take responsibility for.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General said no such thing, and if there is any corruption here, this would be the first time corruption has occurred without any funds actually being spent. Not only have no funds been spent on the acquisition, but no money has been lost on the acquisition, unlike the $40 million we are still looking for--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for Toronto Centre.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the record, and I would ask the Prime Minister to go back--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, order. The hon. member for Toronto Centre has the floor.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

This stuff does not bother me, Mr. Speaker. Let us get on with the real issue.

The Auditor General's report showed two sets of information, two sets of books, being presented to Parliament and being presented in an attack on the Parliamentary Budget Officer. That is what the Prime Minister is condoning. That is what the Prime Minister is saying is absolutely no problem. I guess what the Prime Minister of Canada is telling Canadians is that it is okay to mislead Canadians. It is okay to tell them untruths during an election campaign. It is okay to give misleading information to Parliament. All of that is okay. It is okay for the Minister of National Defence to attack those people--

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The Right Hon. Prime Minister.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General said absolutely no such thing. This government has provided the information at its disposal to Parliament. The government has provided the information at its disposal to the people of Canada. The government remains committed to a thorough assessment of the numbers that have been presented by the Department of National Defence, and the government remains committed to the Canadian aerospace industry and to providing the Canadian military with the planes they need.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister just repeated the exact same mistakes. The Prime Minister should read the Auditor General's report again. The Auditor General clearly said that the information the government had was not given to the Parliament of Canada. That is exactly what the Auditor General said.

Does the Prime Minister think it is fine that Parliament did not receive the necessary information? That is exactly what this government did.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General did not say that. On the contrary.

The government gave the available information to the people of Canada and to Parliament. The Auditor General questioned the due diligence behind this information, which is why we appointed a panel of experts to review the figures. This panel will present its findings in the near future.