Debates of March 18th, 1998

The Senate

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I said in the House, and I repeat it, that I am very proud of the appointment of a person who since 1963 has worked as a private citizen to help the people in his community to participate in the public process.

Hundreds of people in British Columbia have been benefiting from his advice. He has always been a very honest and competent individual. I say again that I worked with him during the time that I was not a member of Parliament. All the facts are known. All of the facts are public. They are on the public record.

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the problem is not what happened when he was in private life. The problem is making a Senate appointment and the payback now that he is in public life as the Prime Minister of the country.

He has been champing at the bit for years to put Ross Fitzpatrick in the Senate, since 1993 when he came to office. Even some Liberals thought that it was too soon and far too crass to put him in back then in 1993. Now in 1998 he is in the Senate. The appointment has been made.

Why does the Prime Minister think it is ethical now in 1998 but it was not ethical for him to do it in 1993?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, again she does not have the facts right. How could I have contemplated naming someone to the Senate in 1993 when there was no opening in the Senate from British Columbia.

They should know that. It is very easy. There is a person in front of me who loves to stay in the dirt. She is very comfortable there. It looks like that.

Option Canada

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in the Option Canada affair, it turns out that the minister did not hand over a grant 12 days before an application was submitted.

What we do know is that the Minister of Canadian Heritage authorized a grant of $2 million 12 days before the grant application was submitted.

Does the Minister of Canadian Heritage find it normal to authorize a grant 12 days before an application is submitted? Does she often find herself authorizing grants before an application—

[The Speaker]

The Minister of Canadian Heritage.

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite rereads the documents I provided him with two months ago, he will find that the comments he made today are still false, as false as they were last week.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the grant was approved 12 days before the application was submitted. What is odd is that, two and a half years later, we still do not know where the money went.

I ask the minister if she is going to require Option Canada to table all the documents concerning its activities, as well as to reveal the names of all those who received money from Option Canada.

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the member is misleading the House. When he accuses me of personally authorizing grants, he should know that I was not even minister at the time.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister is bound by cabinet solidarity, and she knows that very well.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

She is the one misleading the House.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

So, much of the mystery surrounding Option Canada centres on a single person, Claude Dauphin, a former Liberal MP, president of Option Canada in 1995 and now senior adviser to the Minister of Finance responsible for Quebec affairs.

In order to dispel all doubts about Option Canada, why is the government not demanding a full and immediate report from Mr. Dauphin on what he did with—

[The Speaker]

The Minister of Canadian Heritage.

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, the member referred to cabinet solidarity. The leader of the Bloc Quebecois was in Saskatchewan last week. He misled the people of Saskatchewan. He made statements he knew and still knows to be wrong, and he is continuing to make them.

I wish he would be honest enough in this House to recognize that what he said in Saskatchewan was just as wrong as what he said last week.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, someone is going to have to explain to her how to answer questions.

Will the Minister of Finance tell us what criteria he used in hiring Mr. Dauphin as a senior political adviser, when he knows very well that he was president of Option Canada during the time of the referendum in 1995, he spent nearly $5 million of public funds and he never provided a responsible explanation of how he spent it?

[An hon. member]

Where are the millions?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of honesty, something I find rather odd on the part of the Bloc Quebecois is that they do not want to hear anything about the expenditures of Yves Duhaime of Option souveraineté.

They do not want to hear anything about the millions spent on the Le Hir report, which showed just how dysfunctional sovereignty is, and now there is no sign of it. And the francophones outside Quebec magically disappeared.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Hamilton East, ON]

If we are going to talk about honesty, we cannot use Blocspeak.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

National Defence

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, for as long as there has been a Canada men and women in our maritime military services have answered our call: ready aye ready.

How do Liberals plan to reward that loyal service by cannabilizing CFB Shearwater to create a free trade zone to pamper and protect foreign multinationals? Who is behind the scheme? It is loyal Liberal Doug Young.

The minister cancelled the Shearwater announcement with the admiral and the premier scheduled for March 14. Did he do so because he thought Nova Scotians could better handle this news after—

[The Speaker]

The hon. Minister of National Defence.

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, there has been for some time some discussions with the Government of Nova Scotia about the future use of the Shearwater base. Not all of it is required for military purposes any longer and we are pleased to be able to make it available for community economic development purposes.

We are still in discussions on that with the province. When we have come to a conclusion on those discussions I hope we will have a very good announcement to make for the people of Nova Scotia.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has already demonstrated his low regard for military and civilian workers. Just ask those employees who lost their jobs when Serco took over at Goose Bay.

He also demonstrated his high regard for that minority of ex-military officers scheming with loyal Liberal business friends to privatize and contract out vital support functions at military bases.

Will the minister come clean today and confirm that the Liberal government is about to launch a feasibility study on a so-called free trade zone on the lower part of the Shearwater base? Will he have the decency—

[The Speaker]

The hon. Minister for National Defence.

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I have never known the NDP to be a friend of the military but I appreciate its interest.

In terms of this government we want to make sure we can in fact preserve jobs at Goose Bay. That was the reason we went to great efforts to save that base and to provide for an alternate service delivery program that not only saves taxpayers money but most people will in fact have jobs there. Those who will not will have the incentives offered by the Government of Canada and assistance into other jobs.

In terms of Shearwater—