Mr. Speaker, just to reiterate for the folks back home because of the interlude for members' statements and question period, what we are talking about today is Bill C-20. It has to do with direct marketing. More than that, we have had the Senate and the Canadian Bar Association, along with some other characters, say that there should not be whisteblowing. Because they do not approve of the whistleblowing provisions they have tried to strike clauses 66.1 and 66.2 of this bill.
I am going to move beyond the fact that just because it is being advocated by the Canadian Bar Association and the Senate we have to be somewhat suspect about these things. Whenever we have those types of groups getting together to say that we should not have protection of public interest with regard to whistleblowing we have to watch out.
People talk about combating crime. They say they want to see protection. They say they want to see the victims of crooked manoeuvres looked after. They also believe the House should listen. As a matter of fact, all of those four statements came from the Minister of Industry.
Let us take a look at some of those issues when it comes to the idea of whistleblowing and that other place called the Senate. I want to see protections too, just like Michael O'Connor, a lad who lives here in Ottawa. He started up a group called Taxpayers Have Had Enough. He wants protections for the average Canadian taxpayer to make sure that the Senate is living up to its duty and responsibility and that it is being accountable to him.
Michael O'Connor, just like everybody else in this country, contributes to the salaries of our people in the Senate. When he learned that Andy Thompson was only spending one day in the spring and one day in the fall in the Senate, for a total of two days every year, collecting a yearly salary of $64,000 plus $10,000 in expenses, Michael O'Connor was upset. He is a part time health care worker in the Ottawa area. He actually took time from his summer vacation to go to the Senate Chamber to research what the attendance records were. It broke his heart to learn that when the Senate only sits 68 days of the year somebody can attend only two of those 68 days and still qualify for their full salary.
Where is the protection there? We need whistleblowers and we did not have effective whisteblowing on the Senate side.
Today the Minister of Industry, in speaking to Bill C-20, said that the House is listening, and so the House should listen. A few years from now when the Prime Minister decrees an election, the writ will be dropped and I and all other members of this place will go back home to talk to our constituents. We will tell them what we represent, what mandate we want to carry forward in the election and, if we form the government, what we will undertake to do. Therefore the House does listen.
But in that other place, the Senate, there are people who have been appointed there for decades. There is no measure to ensure that they have to listen to anybody. There are those in the Senate who are diligent and do a decent job, indeed there are. But the problem is they are tainted by all those others who do not do due diligence and do not do their job, the Andy Thompsons of this world who are absent to the point of disrepute, of bringing dishonour not only upon that institution but ours as well. The whole parliament suffers as a result of those types of truancies and problems.
That is why we call upon the Prime Minister to recognize the results of Senate elections, not only in the province of Alberta but other places that have enacted legislation similar to Alberta, such as British Columbia.
We want the Prime Minister to act upon the promises he made in his 1990 Liberal leadership race. At that time he said it was possible to hold Senate elections and so he should. Had he held Senate elections and recognized Senate elections since he became Prime Minister, a vast chunk of the people who sit in the Senate today would be elected and accountable senators.
That is what we want to see. We want to see Liberals who hold dear their promises, and prime ministers who stand by their words. That is what we want to see. We want to see taxpayers who have not been burnt like Michael O'Connor and his group. Taxpayers have had enough. They want to see effective whistleblowing.
With regard to Bill C-20, the Reform industry critic talked about victims of deception. He talked about advertising and pricing. He talked about competition. He talked about contempt in individuals unaccountable to anyone. Let us talk about victims of deception.
Right now an election is going on in Newfoundland and Labrador. The premier goes around bellyaching that the federal government does not listen, and he was part of the cabinet of that government. He was part and parcel of a party that promised that it was going to make changes to the Senate.
What happens all too often? The concerns of those provinces, of those hinterlands fall on deaf ears. If that man who is running for premier in that province now, if Brian Tobin recognized Senate elections, held Senate elections in the province of Newfoundland, he would not have the prospect right after that election—and I will make a prediction for February 9 when that election has come and past.
There are five vacancies that I know of in the Senate, three for Quebec, one for Newfoundland and another for Ontario. If Brian Tobin had held an election concurrent with the provincial election for members of the House of Assembly in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Newfoundland on February 9 would have somebody who represented the interests of Newfoundland and not just those of the Prime Minister.
