I will be glad to answer your questions, if I have the time.
The other point I would like to mention concerns something I noticed when I moved into my new office in Ottawa. My 286 and 386 computers were replaced by more efficient and modern systems. In my riding, I have a number of community organizations, women's groups, youth organizations and other groups. They had asked me how to go about buying those old computers from the Canadian government. It is quite difficult, as I found out. It seems that those computers are auctioned off, but that they end up being bought by employees in some departments or their relatives and friends. As a result, taxpayers and community agencies across Canada who would need those computers and
could pay a good price, much to the benefit of the government, never even get a chance.
The reasoned amendment moved by the Bloc Quebecois truly reflects the need for that greater openness all taxpayers in Quebec and the rest of Canada would like to see in that department, which has always been considered the mainstay of patronage under Liberal, Conservative, and other governments alike.
The time has come to put an end to such practices. We should pass appropriate legislation so that openness, and not patronage, prevails in that department. Since past deeds speak to the future, it is sure to remain the patronage department, if this bill is passed. This has to stop. I ask my colleagues on the government side to urge the minister to pay attention to the Official Opposition's point of view.
I will now take my seat so that my colleague from Saint-Boniface can put the question he so badly wants to ask.