Mr. Speaker, I thank the members of the Bloc party opposite who called for an adjournment of this House. It gave us time to gather together to once again go over the same facts that we have already gone over in very public debates, not only here when debating a Bloc motion when we covered this ground, but also in a debate in the public accounts committee and a very public debate in the finance committee.
Instead of talking about innuendo and speculation and the Bloc's idea of what they are looking for, which is a problem, let us deal with the facts the committees had to deal with. The fact is Canadians can see through the transparency of the political process. We had not just one process which is normally accorded to an issue, but two processes with two separate House committees both of which have membership from all parties across this floor.
The primary spark of this debate was an issue and two rulings that came up when the Tory regime was in power, long before we were the government.
The auditor general has to be given credit for bringing this to the attention of the House and not the Bloc, which they would like to argue. The auditor general, not the Bloc, is the watchdog. The auditor general deserves the credit for doing his job. That credit was given to the auditor general in the third report of the public accounts committee.
The auditor general reviewed all the documents in the file. He witnessed this Liberal government's quick and decisive response to issues which originated out of a tax problem. Those were dealt with primarily by the expertise of the House finance committee and legislation was brought in to close any so-called loophole that could have existed.
There was another process in the public accounts committee to go over the Revenue Canada side. Recommendations were issued in the report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The recommendations were acted upon by the revenue department, but not when the report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts asked under recommendations; in fact the public accounts report congratulated Revenue Canada for having acted immediately on the issue being brought to the attention of the House by the auditor
general. We have a response. We have today an objective that is more political than substantial by the Bloc members of the House.
I quote what the auditor general said at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. "I take comfort in the fact that the problem we raised was debated openly by parliamentarians and other observers. And at the end of the day, the Minister of Finance chose to amend the act and to clarify certain points which had created problems for us. I therefore consider this matter closed".
Those are not the words of the government. Those are the words of the auditor general: "I therefore consider this matter closed".