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.
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
We alerted the clerk and he said it was all right.
In any event, I'll go through it very quickly.
The new city council—
Liberal
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
It's large enough. I think you can see it right there.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
The new city council was elected, Madam Chair—
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
It's being distributed, so people can have it. There's a copy of it right there.
Liberal
Raymonde Folco Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
Excuse me, I have a point of order. I'd like to have a clarification from the chair.
February 26th, 2008 / 9:25 a.m.
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
Please.
I would have preferred having advance notice, but seeing as they also have a paper copy to distribute, it is acceptable—
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
—although normally we would be advised in advance of some such....
Mr. Moore, you don't like tricks when others pull them. I guess it's all right when you do, right?
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
I'm not so sure it's a trick, Madam Chair. I'm giving you information.
Chair the meeting. You have your hands full doing that.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
We're handing out the information, Madam Chair, because it's important that Mr. Holland's daily quest to attack ministers, to attack their credibility without information, is in fact refuted.
What happened here was that a new city council was elected, and the new city council, people with deep lineage in the Liberal Party in fact, voted against the light rail project. This idea that John Baird intervened in a process that didn't happen in order to stop a light rail project, for his political benefit, is nonsensical. When you look at the facts, Alex Cullen is a former Liberal candidate in Ottawa West. Gord Hunter was a former candidate. Mr. Chiarelli, Mr. Bellemare, and Madam Wilkinson all have Liberal pasts, and they voted against the light rail project.
In fact, it needs to be mentioned on the record as well that the provincial government of Mr. McGuinty sent a letter saying that provincial funding would in fact be suspended if the project had any kind of change in its design or approach. And all three candidates for mayor at the time had significant changes or opposition to the light rail project itself.
Mr. Holland suggested that there was somehow political interference from the federal government. How can it not therefore be argued as well that there might have been political interference from the provincial government?
This is an example of how appropriate federal government relationships should in fact work. That is to say, decisions aren't made and things aren't rammed down the throats of municipalities and citizens without having due consultation with the elected local representatives. Treasury Board was asked to make a judgment on this file in the middle of a municipal election campaign, and that decision was deferred until a new council was elected. I think that's an entirely appropriate decision. It's what should happen in a democracy. People should be consulted. The democratic process should be respected. And that's in fact what happened here. And as the handout suggests, even the federal Liberals Mr. Holland campaigns for disagree with him that this project was in any way inappropriate.
Mr. Wouters, whose lineage with the federal government pre-exists this federal Conservative government, I would just ask you flat out if any rules were broken by Minister Baird with regard to the light rail project. Yes or no?
Secretary of the Treasury Board
No. The process was followed in due course. The departments submitted the Treasury Board submission to us. Once they felt that they were ready to seek approval for the contribution agreement, that followed due process. The secretariat, of course, provides advice to Treasury Board, and I've outlined to the members of the committee the decision of Treasury Board.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
Just to sum up, because I'm almost out of time, the Ethics Commissioner has said that nothing inappropriate happened. The secretariat of the Treasury Board, having examined this, has said that absolutely nothing inappropriate happened. The elected city council of the city voted against this rail line. And finally, the money that was pre-approved for a rail project for the region is still on the table for a future project.
That's some scandal, Madam Chair.