Mr. Speaker, I will share my time with a colleague.
I am pleased to discuss Bill C-7, which is the former Bill C-52. As my colleagues pointed out on numerous occasions during the previous debates on this legislation, the Bloc Quebecois' position is based, as with many other bills debated in this House, on the government's alleged transparency or, rather, on its lack of transparency.
During the last election campaign, the Liberal Party of Canada used its now famous red book as its book of promises.
But we know that the government has broken its promises more than once, and I give one example that comes to mind. Most of my Liberal colleagues campaigned on a promise of scrapping the GST, and we know what became of that promise. The GST is still with us, and it will still be around for the next election, where it may become yet another promise.
As the members on this side of the House take a malicious pleasure in quoting from the red book in order to remind the government of its broken promises, I would like to read from it two brief passages. The first is on page 92 and reads as follows:
In the House of Commons, a Liberal government will give MPs a greater role in drafting legislation, through House of Commons committees. These committees will also be given greater influence over government expenditures.
A little later, on page 95, we read:
We will take an approach of openness in decision-making.
These passages are short, but they speak volumes about the willingness of the government to keep its election promises. And yet, during the last election, transparency and the openness of the decision making process to all levels was a real profession of faith with the Liberals.
It is my contention that the government has failed, in Bill C-7 before us today, to put in place a mechanism for demonstrating the full transparency of the government. There is no longer any doubt that the government is making no effort to keep its promises, as can be seen with what happened to the GST. A point by point analysis of the bill confirms this. You can hear every note of the lullaby the government is hoping to lull us off to sleep with.
Let us keep in mind that the government opposed the motion we proposed on public funding of political parties. It was my hon. colleague, the hon. member for Richelieu, who proposed at the beginning of the session that the same thing be done in Ottawa as in Quebec City as regards public funding of political parties, so that the Liberals would no longer be funded by business, but rather by individuals.
To quote an expression that is very popular in Quebec, "He who pays the piper calls the tune". This government, this party is funded by major companies, banks, organizations of all kinds, to the tune of $25,000, $30,000 or $50,000. So the ties between these two groups are quite obvious. But it was the Liberals who campaigned with the promise of cleaning up Canadian politics by eliminating this rather questionable cronyism. Yet this government has demonstrated to us, unequivocally, its intention to preserve the privileges it holds with those who contributed to its campaign coffers.
The best example came very recently, in the last budget, when the Minister of Finance announced the creation of a technical committee on business taxation, at least five members of which had together contributed over $80,000 to the party's coffers. The entire question of tax havens is being studied by those who are themselves the heaviest users of them. Are we to conclude that the government adopted a transparent approach here? Hardly.
Let us keep in mind as well the famous bill on lobbyists. It was meant to make the relationships between them and the government more transparent. Here again, the Liberals bowed to the lobbyists, who managed to amend the bill aimed at controlling their own influence. Are we to conclude that the government adopted a transparent approach here? Hardly.
We know that the Department of Public Works and Government Services we are dealing with here is one of the hugest and most influential departments, controlling as it does the procurement of federal goods and services-we are, of course, dealing in billions here. It administers all contracts entered into by the government, and has one of the biggest portfolios around.
It is therefore up to the government to take all necessary measures to ensure that the money spent through this department is spent in accordance with our laws and regulations and, if possible, in a transparent way.
The Liberals promised members of Parliament that they would be allowed to monitor government spending much more closely. This is another red book promise. Well, it is in this very area that members of Parliament should get involved.
It would be logical, cost effective and desirable for us, the elected members of this House, to have the right to monitor this government's numerous expenditures, but this right is not spelled out. The federal government should follow the example of the Quebec National Assembly, which demonstrated how effective such a monitoring process can be.
Unfortunately, we must recognize once again that the government made some very nice promises that it has no intention of keeping. Today during question period, we talked about the appointment of census representatives. We are being asked to provide the names of people in our ridings who could help conduct the census but they will, of course, come after the priority lists drawn up by the department. So much for transparency.
Also, as elected representatives of the people, we have a right to find out about the money spent in our ridings. We have a duty to check if the expenditures ordered in our ridings by departmental officials are really justified. Otherwise, how can we know if they are useful? Should we not find out if these expenditures are legitimate? Is this not the reason why we were elected? Why should the people elect members of Parliament if we have no say in how taxpayers' money is spent? We might as well have only a govern-
ment and get rid of the opposition, because monitoring the government's spending powers is one of our basic duties.
It is deplorable that we as members of the official opposition have to raise this point, when we should be granted such a basic right without having to ask for it. As elected members of Parliament, we are accountable to the people so long as we have a say in public matters.
We are consulted, we are asked to vote on a considerable number of issues, yet we are denied the means to check in the field if the government's decisions are consistent with the recommendations made and legislation passed by this House.
Of course, elected members have the power to question the government on all public expenditures. But how can we carry out in good faith our duties in this House without the means to really find out about the activities of the federal public service? That is the basic question.
There is another point to consider: the accountability of our officials. As you know, the federal public service is the largest employer in Canada. Day in day out, public officials make decisions that have or could have financial implications. The costs involved, as minimal as they may be individually, add up to a huge amount.
In times when we have to put our fiscal house in order, it is imperative that we get a grip on government expenditures. And I will remind you that, at the very beginning, the Bloc Quebecois asked that an ad hoc committee be established to review government expenditures, item by item, but we never got an answer on that.
The public administration must conduct a self-examination to assess the expenses incurred by the various departments, including the one at issue today, namely Public Works and Governmental Services Canada.
As I said earlier, this department handles most of the federal government's goods and services procurement contracts. We must therefore make sure that it does not make any excessive or unnecessary expenditures. Judging from the auditor general's report, year after year, I would say that many expenditures are questionable.
The Bloc Quebecois had suggested putting in place a system whereby public servants could blow the whistle on squandering. If implemented, that solution might result in significant reductions in government spending in the short, medium and long terms. As for the public servants who oppose that measure, they should be told the facts. They should know that it is in their best interest to participate in this type of exercise if they want the government to rely more on them, instead of contracting out. It would also be in their interest to participate, because budgets are being reduced and departments must face cuts, because of the ever increasing deficit and debt. This is not very reassuring in terms of their long term job security.
As regards contracting out, over the last few years, there has been a definite trend showing that the federal public service is relying increasingly on that process.
The government contracts more and more outside the public service. If it results in savings for the government and, indirectly, for taxpayers, and if it stimulates the private sector, so much the better. However, we should be able to know for sure that it does not promote patronage and the awarding of contracts to friends of the government. This is why much greater transparency is required and why opposition members, regardless of their allegiance, must have much more direct access to information.
The total figure for such contracts from the Department of Public Works and Government Services is several billion dollars every year. Such a level of spending should be subject to clear and fair guidelines. The stakes are too high for federal public servants, contracting firms and Canadians.
The government will soon have to tell us what it intends to do about the contracting out process. It had a chance to do so with Bill C-7, but it did not. I cannot understand why the government did not take this opportunity to innovate. Measures must be taken to avoid the wasting of public funds. The government probably thought that we would turn a blind eye on that bill, since it is supposedly just a bill establishing a new Department of Public Works and Government Services.
We see nothing in this legislation that will make the contracting out process more transparent, and that will make us, members of Parliament, more responsible, since we do not have the necessary information.
With this bill, the government distances itself from its election commitment and its red book promises. It distances itself from its obligation to ensure maximum transparency in all its activities. We will continue to strongly condemn that as long as we are in this House. If the government is afraid to give greater transparency to its actions and decisions, then it is hiding things from the public.
If the government has things to hide, then it is doing things that it should not be doing. We have no choice but to come to that conclusion. Some day though, we will know what is going on with this government.