Jean Chrétien

[Ottawa Centre Constituency, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, there will be a byelection when the decision is made, but I do not know why the NDP is so anxious to lose another fight.

[Public Service Commission, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, we have a system that works. If somebody is abusing public funds, the Auditor General does her job. If there are criminal activities, it is referred to the RCMP.

I can see the frustration of the leader of the Conservative Party at this moment, but I want to tell him, I do not want to be a marriage counsellor because he has problems with the marriage with his friends in front.

[Public Service Commission, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Public Service Commission reports to the House of Commons. There is a committee of the House of Commons that looks at the supervision of all the commissions that report directly to the House of Commons. These are not the responsibility of the government. We do not want to intervene too much because those members would be the first to say that we are trying to take away the independence of the people who have the job to oversee the government.

[Former Privacy Commissioner, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in order to enlighten the House of Commons, I would like to quote what the member for Laval Centre said:

As for the appointment of Mr. Radwanski, anyone taking the time to read his resumé can only agree that this man has a very extensive knowledge of Canadian politics. He is most certainly a brilliant and very intelligent person.

I thought this was worth a recommendation.

[Former Privacy Commissioner, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, if I made a mistake, I apologize, but I have before me a statement by the hon. member for Laval Centre praising Mr. Radwanski. Of course, it was somewhat confusing to me that a member would praise him when her leader was not in favour of his appointment. This is not the first time that the leader has not backed one of his members.

[Former Privacy Commissioner, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I want to point out that I have here a quote from a member of the Bloc Quebecois, saying that this man is a reputable figure, that he is brilliant, very intelligent and so on, and that the problem was not with the person, but with the approach. I think the member ought to check with his colleague.

[Former Privacy Commissioner, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the House of Commons has adopted a new provision, Standing Order 111(1), which currently requires appointees or candidates for an appointment such as that to appear.

This is not a government position, but rather a position answerable to the House of Commons, and the candidate is selected with the approval of the House of Commons. A parliamentary committee can review the work done by the appointee, which is exactly what happened in this instance. The committee tabled its report and the Auditor General tabled her report yesterday, pursuant to the Standing Orders. The entire House has a role to perform, and it performed it satisfactorily in this instance.

[Former Privacy Commissioner, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in the case of appointees of the House of Commons like that, we seek the approval of the opposition parties. In this case, like the others, we wrote to all the leaders. There was some comment and we had input from members of Parliament who approved that recommendation. He was questioned by the senators at length. There was a vote and it was approved 49 to 7. He is an officer of the House of Commons and the committee of the House of Commons has done its job on this file.

[Labour Market, September 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I have explained that we had a discussion and that they did not sign. I told him why. I told him that these agreements work well with other provinces. In some provinces the members and the ministers are not very satisfied and there will be new negotiations.

Obviously, if, in the new negotiations, there is no agreement, there will be no agreement. But if there is one, there will be one. But when we have had five years' experience in this field, improvements will be made and we will be able to sign. If we cannot agree, the same thing will happen with the other provinces that has happened with Ontario.

[The Environment, September 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, that is a question he should have asked last year. We have voted on that. It has been approved by the House of Commons. It is approved by the Canadian people, and it is even approved by the Premier of Alberta.