In the ruling of November 27, 2012, the Board of Internal Economy issued a statement. They reviewed the entire Duceppe affair, which, as I said, has great commonality to what the NDP were doing. After they ruled that the actions of Mr. Duceppe were inappropriate, they said, “The Board is confident”—and they put some steps in place to make sure it didn't happen again—“that these additional steps will ensure full compliance with the spirit as well as the letter of the current rules.” That's the point I make, Mr. Chair: I believe everyone knows the difference between right and wrong. But for the NDP to suggest that while technically they might have been in order to do what they did, everyone knows that you can't use, and the spirit of the rules is that you certainly can't use, parliamentary resources for party activities.
Now, the NDP will argue, I'm sure, that even though these individuals were housed in satellite offices paid for by the party, they were not doing party work. I believe there will be evidence that we will be able to produce when Mr. Mulcair appears before this committee that basically contradicts their claims, but not wanting to spoil any surprises, we'll wait until Mr. Mulcair shows up to produce that evidence.
Suffice it to say I think everyone in Parliament recognizes the fact that it is inappropriate to use House of Commons resources, parliamentary resources, to do anything remotely resembling partisan work. To suggest that the individuals in question, even though they were housed within a party-paid-for satellite office, were not doing anything that could improve their political fortunes in those two centres, i.e. political work.... I think that to suggest otherwise is, frankly, being more than slightly disingenuous.
I would also point out, of course, that in Saskatchewan, where they had housed a satellite officer and set up a satellite office, they don't hold any current members of Parliament. There are no sitting members of Parliament there. Interestingly enough, but I think obviously, the reason they set up their office in Saskatoon.... Due to the boundary redistribution, the one seat that seems to be in question, which the NDP would appear to have a fairly good chance of being competitive in, at least, if not outright winning, is a new seat called Saskatoon West. That's why they were setting up a satellite office there, I contend, Mr. Chair, to be able to conduct partisan activities to try to enhance their chances electorally come the next election. Unfortunately, while they are fully able to do that, they cannot use House of Commons resources to do so.
Hence, that was the genesis of this motion. I think I'll refrain from making any more comments now, because I know that David probably, and maybe Peter, and certainly Kevin, would want to speak to this, but I think that when we have Mr. Mulcair appear before this committee on the 15th of May we will have a number of questions specific to the satellite offices, and I look forward to his comments.