Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the motion by the member for Joliette.
I seconded this motion because I think it makes a lot of sense. One could even ask why what it proposes is not already in practice.
The motion proposes that a standing committee hold public hearings on every proposed procurement valued at more than $100 million. This would probably come under the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs. There would therefore be witnesses, people who would ask questions in order to examine all aspects of such procurement. One hundred million dollars is a lot of money. The government would do well to be transparent.
Speaking of national defence, we can see in the Kosovo crisis that one of the problems of this government is a lack of transparency in its actions, the paucity of information it provides. Ultimately, we should perhaps not expect to be given strategic information in wartime.
I had to replace the member for Joliette on the committee. He almost never misses committee meetings. He is extremely available and devoted to his work. Approximately one month ago, however, he asked me to replace him on the defence committee. At the time, the committee was examining government contracts and defence procurement.
National Defence representatives, officials and military personnel appeared as witnesses. I was surprised at the difficulty, not to say the impossibility, of obtaining information, about the breakdown by province of military equipment procurement, for instance.
We were given a few examples. If memory serves, there were about 50 budgets and, at the most, three breakdowns. It is interesting for members, who represent their riding, of course, but also their region and their province, to know how the money is distributed. I was able to question witnesses on regional impacts.
Why did the member for Joliette ask me to replace him? Quite simply because I am the Bloc Quebecois critic for regional development. I therefore wanted to see the defence budgets, the impact they could have on a region.
This information seems to be a state secret. Yet I was not questioning them with a view to finding out what the equipment looked like or what it was made of, or to obtain military secrets. If that had been the case, I could understand. There is no question of telling all, of making everything public, when dealing with defence matters. It is important, however, to know how the money is distributed, what companies and how many jobs are involved. Questions have to be asked about how defence budgets are allocated and decided upon.
I also asked how these things were assessed and by whom. Departmental officials said that they had committees, that studies were commissioned and that the findings were submitted to cabinet. An interesting discovery we make while reading the auditor general's report is that taxpayers from Canada and Quebec can expect to spend large sums of money on projects over the next few months. That means there is a lot of money to be spent each year and, over the next few years, more equipment will have to be replaced.
The report also says that cabinet did not always rely on the findings from studies commissioned by the Department of National Defence. The findings from studies, whether in-house or conducted by firms outside DND, should be used. The auditor general noted, however, that decisions made by cabinet were seldom based on these studies, which is absolutely deplorable.
Regarding the choice of criteria, officials told me that studies were taken into account, but that decisions were primarily based on the political judgement of cabinet members.
When small amounts are involved, I can understand that it may not always be necessary to call for public tenders. But for contracts of $100 million or more, as the member for Joliette said, it seems to me that tendering should be considered.
In fact, I think the member for Joliette is a little bit too reasonable. If I have one criticism to voice regarding his motion, it is that the amount could have been smaller. However he made the following comment in his speech “This is for lack of anything better, since currently there is no obligation to go to tender for procurement projects valued at even more than that”. He suggests that at least we start at this level.
Personally, I would go further, but he is wise. He is trying to get the support of all parties and possibly government members. Even though it is a private member's motion, government members could support it. It seems to me it would be in the public interest.
We should have a parliamentary committee to review budgets, legislation and regulations on this. This is what our constituents want us to do. We are talking about $100 million in military equipment procurement and the government it telling us “No, these decisions are up to cabinet”. The auditor general, public servants and independent observers are saying that the trouble these days in Canada is that everything is decided by the cabinet.
However, I will not go as far as my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean and leave with my seat on this account.
Last night, the governing party went against the wishes of all the opposition parties and refused to hold a vote in the House on the deployment of ground troops in Kosovo. Decisions like these reflect the centralizing approach of the government.
The year 2000 is near. In my riding, people do not think much of politicians as a whole because they feel that in this parliament, as in others, democracy means “You can say all you want, decisions are made elsewhere”. In this instance, decisions are made strictly at cabinet level.
And who controls the cabinet? The Prime Minister. This is how things are done in the Prime Minister's office: the minister responsible makes a recommendation and the other ministers support it because of what is called collective cabinet responsibility. In fact, only a handful of people make the big decisions.
I want to remind the House that we are talking about $100 million, which seems quite reasonable to me. This is why I wholeheartedly support the motion put forward by the hon. member for Joliette. I want to commend him for moving the motion and aptly arguing in its favour. I urge my Liberal colleagues to support it.