Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker made specific reference to the fact that the ethics counsellor had been consulted and had rendered his opinions and so on and so forth.
My notes state that we spoke to the ethics counsellor on January 30 about the minister's involvement or lack thereof with the legislation. The ethics counsellor answered that the Canada Steamship Lines pension fund was incorporated under the Pension Funds Societies Act under the auspices of the Department of Industry and would not therefore be directly affected by the Pension Benefits Standards Act.
That is why in my speech I made specific reference to the ethics of the ethics counsellor who obviously was quite willing to give us the wrong information, to mislead us in our assessment of the situation. Obviously he was involved in a much earlier situation and knew the problem related to the Minister of Finance. That demonstrates the lack of ethics of the ethics counsellor.
I reiterate that the motion was introduced in the House by the Minister of Finance. The parliamentary secretary tells us that the Minister of Finance did everything in his power to remove himself from the bill, yet he could have quite easily had another minister or even the secretary of state introduce the motion. Obviously he preferred to do it.
I am not sure—and I am talking about appearance and perception being very important in these matters—that the secretary of state would be sufficient. He is an assistant to the minister. The present secretary of state was appointed by cabinet proclamation pursuant section 11 of the Ministers of State Act first past by Prime Minister Trudeau in 1970.
Section 11 of the act tells us that the duty of the minister is to assist the minister or ministers having responsibility for any department and states that the secretary of state will make use of the services and facilities of the department. Therefore we know that the secretary of state has full access to Department of Finance officials and offices.
Further, on June 25, 1997, the Gazette states that the secretary of state was appointed pursuant to section 11 and the details of the duty of the secretary state are to assist the Minister of Finance in the carrying out of his responsibilities. Therefore the secretary of state is not removed from the Minister of Finance but is an assistant to the Minister of Finance.
I again raise the question and ask for confirmation of why the Minister of Finance introduced this motion in the House of Commons when it could have been introduced by the Minister of Industry, as it was previously, if the Minister of Finance specifically knew that he had a definite conflict in terms of the particular bill?