Mr. Speaker, I asked a question of the prime minister on December 4, just about a week ago, in relation to Summa Strategies Inc., a lobbying company in Ottawa.
My question was with regard to the activities of this company because two former Liberal members of Parliament were acting on behalf of an American company to take possession of a Canadian port.
We had a vote in the House last night on the marine act, Bill C-9, which would see the privatization of ports in Canada.
What disturbs me about these two members of Parliament is that one of them is Doug Young, the former minister of transport who was the architect of the marine privatization act or Bill C-9. It is identical to the original bill that he introduced to the House when he was the Minister of Transport in the previous Parliament.
There is something patently wrong when the government allows that type of activity to happen, because here we have it. The gentleman who knows the department intimately, the former minister who wrote the act, now works on behalf of an American company that wants to take ownership of a Canadian port.
It is bad enough that Mr. Paul Zed, a former member of Parliament, is also involved in that consulting company. In fact, he is one of the co-owners with Mr. Young of Summa Strategies. It is bad enough that a member of Parliament would be involved, but when you have a minister acting along with the member of Parliament doing that, the former member of Parliament and the former minister, there is something absolutely wrong.
When I raised that question in the House, I asked the Prime Minister, does this meet his definition of ethical behaviour. They just fudge on the answer. A lot of Canadians want to know whether or not that would meet the Prime Minister's definition of ethical behaviour. I think most people in this House on both sides would say no, it does not meet what would be an acceptable level of ethical behaviour.
What Mr. Young and Mr. Zed are doing in terms of the law, I am not going to stand up here and say they are breaking the law, because obviously they are both very smart men, they are intelligent men. But we are talking about ethical behaviour, and insider knowledge and information of departments, and the architect of the very act which we debated in this House this week which will be given royal assent very soon. There is something wrong when that happens.
On the provincial side of this equation, we have a former minister of economic development in the province of New Brunswick by the name of Al Lacey who owns the company Al Lacey and Associates. He is lobbying on behalf of the provincial government.
We have the consummate insiders both federally and provincially. There is something wrong when that is allowed to happen, especially when we are looking at giving ownership of a Canadian port to an American company.
It is absolutely bizarre that we would allow the Canadian government and the province of New Brunswick to allow a port like that to be sold and allow the highest paid lobbyists in the country to represent these companies, every one of these lobbyists being former members of the crown cabinet or members of Parliament.
On that I rest my case. I look forward to the response from the parliamentary secretary.