Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to finish my speech on Bill C-52.
As I was saying before question period, it has cost the government $5 billion to contract out in 1992-93. This money that the government of Canada spent on contracting-out could have been used to improve the services provided to the Canadian public instead of maintaining a patronage relationship with the friends of the regime.
Let me tell you that between 1984-85 and 1992-93, costs have gone up with contracting-out. Costs have increased by 56 per cent at Public Works Canada during the same nine-year period. They increased by 114.2 per cent at DND and by 207 per cent at Health and Welfare Canada. Costs also increased at Supply and Services Canada-by 247 per cent. And, to really cap it, they increased by 628 per cent at Customs and Excise.
In ten years, while under pressure by the Auditor General and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts to do so, the federal government never managed to demonstrate that contracting-out was cost-effective. The Department of Public Works and Government Services is a major department. It handles a great deal of money. Let me give you a few examples.
Public Works and Government Services Canada is responsible for the inflow and outflow of all public funds and keeps an average daily cash balance of $2.3 million. It is also responsible for the accounting system and makes financial transactions totalling $163 million. It makes payments to the tune of $200 million annually for the Canada Pension Plan, the old age security system, taxes on goods and services, Public Service employees' pay, and so on.
It is also responsible for federal purchases. Last year, $13 billion-worth of goods and services falling into 17,000 different classes were purchased. It negotiates 175,000 contracts every year. It is the custodian of federal real property. It owns property valued at $6.5 billion. It provides office space to approximately 170,000 employees, in 4,000 different locations. It spends $2 billion a year.
How can we ensure that the government will not use contracting-out or privatization contracts to reward its friends? In other words, how can we avoid any kind of patronage in the awarding of privatization or other contracts by the federal government?
Bill C-52 should have more teeth. This is the Bloc Quebecois's proposal: We ask that a public review board be created under the bill to scrutinize contracts awarded by the Department of Public Works and Government Services and to ensure openness.
Second, we ask that a contracting-out code be clearly defined in this bill.
Third, we demand that members of Parliament of all political stripes be consulted about and kept informed of the government contract awarding process involving the ridings they represent.
Fourth and last proposal: We ask that the Department of Public Works and Government Services produce regular statements-monthly reports-to open up the federal government contracting process. The problem with this bill is that members of Parliament cannot find out which government contracts directly affect their ridings. There is no way to make federal officials accountable for contract-generated or in-house expenditures-to make them denounce any waste of public funds.
This bill should also provide for elimination of advance payments such as those we discovered recently at Communications Canada.
This bill must also protect the government because it left the door wide open to lobbyists. It does not allow a sufficient degree of openness. Not too long ago in this House, the hon. member for Richelieu moved a motion to prevent companies, stakeholders and lobbyists from contributing to the government's election fund. Unfortunately, this motion was rejected by the Liberal government and by many Reform members.
I think that lobbyists who occasionally attend $1,000-a-head dinners given by the Prime Minister have a right to expect the government to pay them back.
For all these reasons, the Bloc Quebecois proposes setting up a three-party public review board whose elected members would come from all political parties represented in and officially recognized by the House of Commons, from public administration experts and from Auditor General officials. The government should use this bill to give itself additional audit authority.
These are certainly the most important openness criteria the government should set for itself.