Scott Brison

[Sponsorship Program, October 15th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that our Prime Minister has throughout his time as Prime Minister committed to and delivered full transparency and openness.

Justice Gomery's work is important work. We are providing full cooperation to Justice Gomery. I would urge the hon. member not to comment on day to day testimony before Justice Gomery because we need to get to the full truth and only Justice Gomery's report will provide Canadians with that answer.

[Points of Order, October 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for South Shore—St. Margaret's and, in fact, I support the same principle, that when members of Parliament say something in the House that is wrong they should correct it.

However the fact is that I did not say anything that was wrong because yesterday the hon. member raised a point of order saying that I had misled the House. In fact that was not true, and he can check Hansard to verify that.

Today he said that he was not aware of the sponsorship program, which I find curious because I have a letter dated October 30, 2003 to the then minister of public works, and the member is writing on behalf of the South Shore exhibition in my constituency, his constituency in fact, concerning its application to the Canada sponsorship program.

I am really curious how the hon. member can say that he was not aware of the sponsorship program, a program of the Government of Canada, that all members of Parliament doing their work ought to have been aware of, when in fact he was writing letters to the minister of public works seeking support for organizations in his riding.

[Points of Order, October 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Gomery commission is an independent commission. We have provided them with all the documentation that they have requested. As well, we provided documents to Parliament through the public accounts committee that they requested last spring. I can assure the hon. member that all requests that are made by the public accounts committee in the future will be responded to fully. To conclude, we are being completely open and transparent to Parliament and to the Gomery commission in these proceedings.

[Sponsorship Program, October 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, members of other parties in the House called for a judicial inquiry. The government has actually moved on this initiative and the Prime Minister has demonstrated the courage to do that.

Therefore, I would urge the hon. members opposite to support the Prime Minister and the government in getting to the bottom of this issue and not prejudge the work of Justice Gomery, a noted legalist who is doing a good job. We cannot provide commentary on a day to day, play by play basis of the testimony before the inquiry and expect to get any semblance of the truth.

[Sponsorship Program, October 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should recognize that the fact that he can stand in this House and ask a question on testimony before the Gomery commission exists only because it was the Prime Minister who called the Gomery commission to get to the bottom of this.

We are not afraid of getting to the bottom of this issue. The Prime Minister has demonstrated tremendous openness, accountability and honesty in dealing with this.

I do not know why the hon. member would not allow Justice Gomery to continue doing his work without prejudgment on a day to day basis.

[Sponsorship Program, October 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the answer is absolutely yes to the hon. member's question.

The government has made a tremendous amount of information available to both the public accounts committee and to the Gomery commission. Millions of pages of documents have been provided based on the questions asked by both public accounts and the Gomery commission.

Beyond that, we have made cabinet documents available back to 1994, which is a remarkable statement of transparency and openness. We are committed to getting to the truth on this side of the House, and I hope the hon. member is as well.

[Sponsorship Program, October 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister made a significant step forward by asking Judge Gomery to do his work and by providing Judge Gomery with the resources needed to complete that work.

We are not prejudging his work on this side of the House. We are allowing Justice Gomery to proceed to get to the truth, and that is what all Canadians are demanding from this government. I would ask that the hon. member respect that.

[Points of Order, October 13th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I urge the hon. member to check the blues. I did not say that he lobbied. I said that organizations within his riding did receive sponsorship money, which is the case of the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. I am sure it was more than appreciative. It is a good organization that received money from the sponsorship program.

[Sponsorship Program, October 13th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, further to the hon. member's question about openness, transparency and information being provided by the Government of Canada, the information commissioner recently lauded the Prime Minister for his early moves in the government to boost transparency. He said that the Prime Minister has confronted head on this whole issue of secrecy in governments across the country. Further, he has said that the government will be sufficiently self-confident, courageous and honest to beat the secrecy addiction to which other governments fall victim.

That is what the information commissioner is saying about the Prime Minister's commitment to openness, honesty and transparency.

[Sponsorship Program, October 13th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted that the hon. member has brought to the attention of the House the extraordinary commitment to transparency that the government has demonstrated by providing thousands and in fact millions of pages of documents to both committees.

We responded to requests from the public accounts committee and to the requests from the Gomery commission. Based on the questions asked, we provided the documents requested. That is what we are doing. We are cooperating with both the public accounts committee and the Gomery commission to get to the truth. We are committed to getting to the truth in the government.