Evidence of meeting #14 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contract.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:50 a.m.
Bloc
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
It is not translated, so we cannot accept it. All of the copies that were given to committee members must be picked up.
Mr. Moore, you have every right to read the letter, if you wish.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
That two minutes doesn't come out of my time.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
No, I have four minutes, because you took up two minutes of my time.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
I read the letter because it requires translation, Madam Chair—nice try—but this letter—
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
Mr. Moore, you know the rules of committees. You were trying to pull a fast one. Go ahead and read.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
I'm reading the letter so it can be translated, Madam Chair, that's why.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Holland Liberal Ajax—Pickering, ON
Point of order.
I saw that there was great care given to hand out copies to the media, but members of committee have not been given anything.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
No. For the reasons she described, it has to be translated. That's why I'm reading it.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Holland Liberal Ajax—Pickering, ON
It's a continuation of the game. I don't know if you have a slide show or something going on next.
9:50 a.m.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
I cannot hear the interpreter, because everyone is talking at the same time.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
All right.
At any rate, I will tell you this. In a committee such as this, only the clerk is authorized to distribute documents and only after they've been translated. That's the rule.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
Do I have any time left, or are you totally filibustering here?
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
I will give you a few minutes more, but that's it. I want you to know exactly what is happening here.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
Madam Chair, the reason I read the letter is because I understand it needs to be translated. That's why I read it. The point of the letter is that it's from an elected city councillor from Knoxdale-Merivale ward, Gord Hunter. Gord Hunter asks John Baird to take the action that he did, and I just want to read the final two paragraphs here. They're very short, so no filibustering, please.
I ask that you support Mr. Gowan's position. It is one that is held by most residents in Ottawa. Three of the four major candidates for the Mayor's job have tested the political wind and come out against the light rail project. Help save the City of Ottawa and withdraw funding support for this project until the City comes up with a plan that makes more sense. It is your right to do so and it is the right thing to do. Respectfully, Gord Hunter
What happened here is precisely right, and I know for Mark Holland, as the MP for Ajax--Pickering, there's a very fierce debate on the ground about Pickering airport, about whether or not that's in the interests of the people of Pickering. So I would like to think that if he were in government again, if this debate were to arise, he could in fact engage this debate, and in fact if a decision were being made by the federal government about Pickering airport at the exact same time, in the middle of a municipal election campaign, and every major candidate for the mayor's chair, every single one of them, wanted to alter the project, an alteration that would require the suspending of the funding from the provincial government, that he would have the same position, which is that the people should be heard on this matter.
With regard to light rail, that's what happened here. The Ethics Commissioner said nothing improper happened. The Treasury Board Secretariat said nothing improper happened. The view of the newly elected city council, and therefore the public, was taken into account, and in a future light rail project, the money that was committed before is still on the table for another project.
Everything that should happen in a democracy happened here, and everything appropriate did happen here.
Madam Chair, you can now go ahead and interrupt me.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
Mr. Moore, you do say all the time that the Ethics Commissioner ruled that this was fine. Do you have anything to prove that? I've never seen that anywhere, and you keep repeating it.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
Yes, Madam Chair. I can table the letter, or I can read it into the record if you want it translated.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
The letter is from 2006. I'd be glad to table it, but I suspect you're not really interested.
