Mr. Speaker, on December 1, 1994 I placed the following question on the Order Paper:
For each department, agency and crown corporation, how many employees, including parliamentary agents, governor in council appointees, armed forces personnel and RCMP personnel receive, or will receive, the following benefits for one year or more: (a) a living allowance for a second residence and (b) a transportation allowance (or transportation) from home to place of work where distance exceeds 40 kilometres, and if any receive the foregoing, (i) what is the cost per individual recipient, (ii) what is the rank, position or title of each recipient and (iii) is the tax deducted at the source for these benefits".
I thought it was a fairly simple question.
Next Tuesday it will be 11 months since I placed that question on the Order Paper. The question was prompted by the revelation that the Commissioner of Official Languages was being chauffeur
driven between Montreal and Ottawa each week and had an apartment supplied to him in Ottawa courtesy of the government, all because the job was in Ottawa but he preferred to live in Montreal.
Standing Order 39(5)(a) gives a member the right to ask for a response in 45 days. This is not a problem of delay but a problem of avoidance on the part of the government. Questions on the Order Paper are methods by which we as the opposition to the government, on behalf of Canadians in general, may hold the government accountable and obtain the facts concerning benefits given to its appointees that are not available to the public at large.
I ask you, Mr. Speaker, to look into the matter for me pursuant to Standing Order 39(5)(a) and find out why I do not have a response from the government to my question.