Madam Speaker, my Reform Party colleague from Okanagan made so many assertions in his speech that I do not know where to begin. I challenge his statement that this clause works against open government.
That is just not so. In his discourse the member referred to detail about the Federal Business Development Bank. It was proof of public accountability for nearly every transaction that goes on in government and specifically in Department of Industry. The blue book details-and the people of Canada should know it-every decision and every taxpayers' dollar spent by this department.
To suggest that clause 14 allows the Minister of Industry to go around with a chequebook in his pocket so that if he happens to run into somebody he likes or he thinks has an interesting idea he can write a cheque is not what it is all about.
This clause is about our space arm. Spar Aerospace was an example of the taxpayers of Canada investing approximately $140 million in 1979, 1980 and 1981. When that arm opened in outer space and the word Canada was on the side of it, I do not think there was a Canadian who said anything other than bravo. Today that space arm technology has brought the country a tenfold return.
What about the McCains? The Reform Party member said we should listen to private entrepreneurs. That is an example of a private entrepreneur in Atlantic Canada who got his $4 million kickstart from the Government of Canada in a DREE loan. Right now he is employing close to 20,000 Canadians in every region of our country, all the way from processors to marketers to packagers to truck drivers and so on. He is a private entrepreneur and has paid back in tax dollars and employee tax dollars a thousand times the investment. What about Bombardier? It is
selling monorails all over the world right now. It is doing all kinds of stuff.
I will talk about a personal experience I had. I was involved with a company called Magna International that received taxpayers' money. It not only paid it all back but this year it paid the treasury $145 million in tax. It employs 20,000 people and is flying. The company needed it. It was the story of an entrepreneur getting a bit of a push for his idea, his technology. That company makes the best automotive product at the most competitive price and is recognized as one of the leaders in the world.
What about Northern Telecom? What about MacMillan Bloedel in western Canada? What about the oil and gas industry? These are concrete examples of entrepreneurs, men and women, who went through due process and received taxpayers' money.
There is another thing Reform Party members do not understand. They think if someone has an idea he or she knocks on the door of Industry Canada and there is a cheque writing machine there.
I like to think I am an entrepreneur. I find the whole process of dealing with bureaucrats to be very frustrating. They want paper and more paper. They want to make sure the promised job creation objectives are being met with the taxpayers' money. They come in and do audits. There is scrutiny beyond imagination.
I would be the first to admit that the Government of Canada has made mistakes from time to time. If they add the last 20 years of taxpayers' money invested in R and D, in new technology and in regional development projects versus the return, Reformers would suddenly come across the Chamber and join us.