House of Commons photo

Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was federal.

Last in Parliament May 2004, as Canadian Alliance MP for Calgary Southwest (Alberta)

Won his last election, in 2000, with 65% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Human Resources Development March 22nd, 2000

Mr. Speaker, why is it that the minister has so much difficulty answering this very simple question? Either there were guidelines for directing funds to pockets of unemployment or there were not. The former deputy minister says there were not. The minister repeatedly implies that there were. Who is wrong?

Human Resources Development March 22nd, 2000

Mr. Speaker, millions of dollars of taxpayers' money has been funnelled into the human resources minister's riding even though Brantford does not qualify for transitional jobs fund grants.

For months the minister has been saying that there were pockets of unemployment that justified giving these grants. Yesterday, Mel Cappe, the minister's former deputy, told a committee of this House there were no explicit guidelines for directing these funds to pockets of unemployment. The question is very simple. Who is misleading us?

Human Resources Development March 21st, 2000

Mr. Speaker, this party believes in fixing unemployment by lowering taxes.

The simple fact is that this morning Canada's most senior public servant contradicted the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada. My question is, who should Canadians believe?

Human Resources Development March 21st, 2000

Mr. Speaker, the minister did not address the question at all. It was raised by testimony at committee this morning.

The minister has been using this pockets of unemployment rationale for handing out millions of dollars of HRD grants. This morning Mel Cappe blew her cover on that subject.

I will again ask the minister to explain why there is a contradiction between what she told the House today and what Mel Cappe told the committee this morning.

Human Resources Development March 21st, 2000

Mr. Speaker, this morning Mel Cappe, the former deputy minister of human resources, testified at the human resources committee. He testified that there were no explicit guidelines focusing on pockets of unemployment when handing out HRD grants. This directly contradicts what the human resources minister has told the House concerning the justification for handing out millions of taxpayers dollars.

How does the minister explain this contradiction?

Export Development Corporation March 20th, 2000

Mr. Speaker, $2.8 billion in bad loans is almost three times the billion dollars bungled by human resources. Many of the same ingredients that infect the mismanagement of taxpayer money by human resources are found in the minister's department.

Key EDC decision makers have close links to the Prime Minister. The chairman of the EDC is a long time Liberal ally of the Prime Minister. Large subsidies went to some of the largest contributors to the Liberal Party and billions of dollars are lost.

If the government has nothing to hide, why does it not lift the cloud of secrecy that surrounds EDC?

Export Development Corporation March 20th, 2000

Only $1 billion, Mr. Speaker. Another minister got into a great deal of trouble for saying something like that about 30 years ago.

When the EDC writes off bad loans, the taxpayers end up on the hook, and taxpayers have no way of even tracking where or how these bad loans were incurred. EDC is exempt from federal access to information laws and all the standard accounting practices that we expect from the government departments.

Again, we are asking the minister to give a straight answer to the question. How many taxpayer dollars have been lost by EDC on bad loans?

Export Development Corporation March 20th, 2000

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, the human resources scandal is just the tip of an iceberg.

Another government agency, the Export Development Corporation, has outstanding loans amounting to $22 billion, of which about $2.8 billion has apparently been written off as lost. That is three times the amount bungled by the human resources department, and because EDC is even less accountable for taxpayers' money than the other government agencies, the total may well be higher.

What is the total amount of taxpayer dollars that has been lost on bad loans by the Export Development Corporation?

Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000

Mr. Speaker, let us go over it again. The minister had an internal audit on her desk revealing gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. Her departmental spin doctors presented her with three options for releasing the information to the public. The words “demonstrates transparency” were only used in connection with one approach, the proactive approach. The approach the minister chose was described as simply “demonstrating business as usual”.

Again, how can the minister claim she is being transparent when she rejected the one communications approach her own departmental people said—

Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. We have a copy finally of this communications brief. It outlines three distinct approaches, going from the most transparent, the proactive approach, to the least transparent, the reactive approach. The reactive strategy suggests carrying on business as usual and not releasing the results of the audit until forced to do so by an access to information request.

We are talking about an audit dealing with gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. Why did the minister choose the least transparent strategy for handling that internal audit?