Madam Speaker, it is ironic that all those years in opposition the Liberals wanted accountability and now we hear them talking like they do not want it. This is a request for information.
Although the information that is being requested may have some problems with it in that it is voluminous and the information on a monthly basis may be quite a tribunal to produce, especially in this world of paperwork in Ottawa, I suppose we might be able to look at limits on the types of dollars that are reported, and so on. Nevertheless, the Liberal government would be very wise to keep an open mind on what is being asked here of my colleague.
I am a member of the public accounts committee and it is again ironic that I have asked for information relating to current expenditures of this government and I have been unable to get it on a current basis. Once a year we produce a public accounts list and you can get it at that point. What we are looking for here is money that is unwisely spent at the time it is spent, not a year from now that we go complaining about it.
Why are we asking for this in the first place? Why are we asking for the government to disclose what it is spending and why and how?
How often have we wished in this country that we could elect politicians who possessed the fortitude, the integrity, to be frugal, to spend the taxpayers' money as though it were their own, who end the practice of patronage and have the greatest desire to be held accountable to the people? It seems like we threw the Liberals out in 1984 in the hope that the Conservatives would exercise these responsible attributes. What happened? The Conservatives were just as bad, if not worse, than the Liberals.
Here we are in 1994 throwing Canadians back into the political pot with the Liberals, who already have shown signs of poor judgment, political patronage and wasteful spending.
Is it any wonder why today in this stage of our country's development millions of Canadians cannot tell the difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives?
My colleague who just spoke from the government side said: "Carefully and responsibly addressed by government'. That is how he is suggesting that moneys are being spent in this country today. Earlier this week we disclosed in this House that if you call giving prisoners in this country old age security, CPP and GST rebates responsible, I am afraid there is quite a difference of opinion as to what is responsible and what is not. We do not consider that responsible.
Let us take the political placement of the NAFTA headquarters in Montreal, the millions in grants to the Prime Minister's riding for a museum of industry, and a $30 million grant to Quebec City for a conference centre. One can only wonder since they are basically patronage payouts how many people are
getting contracts within those allotments that are indeed inappropriate.
What the member is asking for here is some legitimizing of the process, some information going back to the taxpayer that discloses what is going on.
The fact is that there is no difference between Liberals and Conservatives of the past, they are both out of touch. They are both big spenders and firmly believe in spending your money the way they prefer and not the way you prefer.
What must all Canadians do to protect ourselves these days? I think the hon. member for Laurentides has a solution to part of the problem at least. Systematically table every month all of the contracts awarded by departments and by the agencies that report to them. What is so difficult about something like that?
It will be interesting to see whether or not this flaccid Liberal government supports this motion. After all, it does have the potential of keeping the taxpayer appropriately informed, stimulating competitiveness and ensuring that government decisions are open for public scrutiny. We will see when the vote comes. It is probably Monday or Tuesday night, and we will be watching for it.
Since we know that the Liberals and Conservatives are kindred spirits in the same world of politics, let us look at some expenditures of the past that were made on behalf of the citizens of our country. They can judge for themselves whether they would have spent money on these projects. If they disagree, they should write their members of Parliament and tell them what they think. They should confirm that they want some safeguards instilled to protect them and their hard earned income from the Liberal process of mismanagement.
I want to run through a couple. I want to make it very clear that these were expenditures within the Conservative government. However, I am making my point here that there is very little difference between this Liberal government with regard to management of fiscal resources in this country and the Conservatives.
Let us look at what the National Capital Commission spent in 1991; $10,800 of taxpayers' money to finance a poll to find out what Canadians thought about Christmas lights. Is that a wise expenditure? I do not think the people of Fraser Valley West would think that way.
In 1990 the finance department spent $300,000 to produce and distribute 40,000 videos explaining how the federal government spent money-very good. We will be watching for these expenditures all through the next five years. If the government thinks it is going to get away with it, it has another thing coming with the Reform Party because we are going to watchdog every expenditure it has.
I will give a couple of more because there are so many. Let us talk about the $147,000 to examine lullabies, the form and function in infant directed music-very good. I think the people watching are getting the point.