House of Commons Hansard #242 of the 36th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was culture.
Alexa McDonough NDP Halifax, NS
Mr. Speaker, the fact remains that the government caved, caved to illegal American threats, but that is the record of the government. On Canadian culture, it caved. On Pacific salmon, it caved. On plutonium imports, it caved. On environmental polluters, it caved.
This raises the terrifying question of what is next. Will it be customs union, the American dollar or American health care? Does the government have any policy position other than flat on its back?
Sheila Copps LiberalMinister of Canadian Heritage
Mr. Speaker, the only member of parliament who is in a cave today is Svend Robinson.
CultureOral Question Period
The Speaker
Order, please. I would ask hon. members to please not use each other's names.
Jim Jones Progressive Conservative Markham, ON
Mr. Speaker, Canadians need more than the Prime Minister's word to believe his claims of his integrity. They need more than the word of an ethics counsellor who has no independence, no clout and no teeth. They are not getting real answers from the Prime Minister.
Once again I ask the Prime Minister, will he take politics out of the search for the truth and ask the auditor general to review these three projects?
Jean Chrétien LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the auditor general is supposed to look at all projects. It is his job. He is paid for that. He reports to the House of Commons four times a year. We have extended the possibility for the auditor general, who had to report only once a year, to report four times a year. He is free to look at any operation of any department anytime he wants.
Jim Jones Progressive Conservative Markham, ON
Mr. Speaker, when HRDC withholds 363 pages of my access to information requests on Pierre Thibault and Yvon Duhaime, the government cannot claim full disclosure. When the Liberal industry committee chair prevents the Prime Minister's trustee from testifying in public, the government cannot claim full disclosure.
If the Prime Minister is innocent of these charges, why is he afraid of releasing all of the documents, letting his trustee testify and calling in the auditor general?
Pierre Pettigrew LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, all documents have been released in compliance with access to information guidelines in this country and in this parliament which protect, of course, commercial confidences and the privacy of third parties. We respected absolutely the guidelines. There is no problem with that at all.
Chuck Strahl Reform Fraser Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, you will remember the transitional jobs fund, that granting society that has to first be approved by the Prime Minister.
Now we have access to information documents that show the following: Aerospatial Globax received $2 million in grants on the eve of the election and then gave a $4,000 donation to the Prime Minister's campaign. Confections St. Elie got a $285,000 grant from the same program on the eve of the election and then gave a $1,500 donation to the Prime Minister's campaign.
What is the relationship between speedy government approval for these grants and donations to the Prime Minister's campaign?
Jean Chrétien LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, what is great about the system is that when anybody contributes any money above $100 we have to make it public, so there is absolutely no link.
Perhaps I should see if there are any members of parliament, especially of the Reform Party, who have worked to receive grants from the government and who have received donations in the past that are legal under our system.
We have a long list of Reform Party members who have benefited from those programs, and in doing that they have just done their job, which is to work for their constituencies.
Chuck Strahl Reform Fraser Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, I challenge the Prime Minister to find one who sold a money losing hotel to his grant recipient before the thing was approved.
Megatech Electric also got a government grant under the transitional jobs fund and it also gave money to the Prime Minister's election campaign.
It seems that there is just one happy coincidence after another for the Prime Minister. There are millions of dollars in suspicious grants. There are criminal investigations of an associate of the Prime Minister. There is a half million dollar land deal involved with a $6 million CIDA contract. The list goes on and on.
We have to ask the Prime Minister, how many coincidences—
Jean Chrétien LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, members opposite are just trying to create something because they have nothing else.
I suspect that after the party at Stornoway tonight, following the vote release, there will be two or three parties on the right. They will have other problems, so they want to create problems for us.
I think that when a contract is given to somebody who has bid $6.5 million, when the second bid was $9 million, the government was right to give it to the lowest bidder. I understand that the Reform Party would have given the contract to the one who bid $9 million.
Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Verchères, QC
Mr. Speaker, this government specializes in formal morality: it appoints an ombudsman for the army without any power, it has an ethics counsellor to give the Prime Minister private answers and it sets up commissions of inquiry and then does everything to stifle and sabotage them subsequently.
My question is for the Prime Minister. Is the trademark of this government and this Prime Minister not in fact these very empty and glitzy morality measures?
Jean Chrétien LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, this is the first time these issues have been discussed before House committees through the participation of the ethics counsellor.
In the past, no such questions could be posed in these areas, because there was no one to analyze them and we were obliged to hold strictly to the statement by the individual in the House of Commons.
Now, there is an independent official, who has the job and the power to study and answer questions before the committee, when he appears, according to the rules of this House.
Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Verchères, QC
Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister was the Leader of the Opposition, we recall how sensitive he was to any whiff of scandal and patronage.
Is the lesson the Prime Minister learned from the experience of the previous government not “we must not do it” but rather “we must not be caught doing it”?
Jean Chrétien LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, quite honestly we now understand why they are dropping so quickly in the polls, with remarks like that.
This government has been in office for six years, and there has been no proven scandal that has forced the resignation of any minister, because we have established very strict rules of ethics and mechanisms in order to revise them regularly, to make sure that all standards are followed by each member of the administration.
Grant Hill Reform Macleod, AB
Mr. Speaker, today we learned that a Quebecer falsified his blood donor questionnaire.
Actions such as this could endanger the lives of Quebecers who depend on our blood system for their survival.
The Minister of Health is responsible for the safety of Canada's blood system. Can he confirm to the House that he will lay criminal charges against Joël Pinon in order to discourage this kind of irresponsible and dangerous action?
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Health
Mr. Speaker, it is up to the police to decide whether or not to lay charges.
As far as I am concerned, the action as reported in the newspapers was clearly irresponsible and unacceptable. According to the newspapers, the individual lied on the Héma-Québec forms. He answered no when he should have answered yes.
Apparently, Héma-Québec has taken action to ensure that the blood is not used, and Health Canada will help them in this regard.
Grant Hill Reform Macleod, AB
Mr. Speaker, the blood has already been used. If the answer had been yes on the questionnaire we could have held the blood back for three weeks and made sure it was safe by re-testing it.
This minister is responsible. This minister had a blood scandal that he did not handle very well. Is he going to preside over another, similar blood scandal?
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Health
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that Héma-Québec provided a form to a potential donor. The donor was asked questions and, according to news reports, answered dishonestly, with the result that blood was taken onboard and then put into the system. The form was prepared and distributed in accordance with the way we do things in this country. We ask people who are giving blood to tell the facts and we act on that. That is good practice. If someone lies, there is not much we can do.
Héma-Québec is tracing the blood, trying to get it out of circulation. It is taking every reasonable step to make sure that no one is harmed by this event.
Richard Marceau Bloc Charlesbourg, QC
Mr. Speaker, in the apparent conflict of interest involving the Prime Minister and business people in his riding, the more the Prime Minister tries to answer our questions, the less we understand.
My question is for the solicitor general. Given that doubts remain with respect to this affair, could the solicitor general not just this once do his job and ask the RCMP to investigate the Prime Minister's conduct?
Lawrence MacAulay LiberalSolicitor General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, if the RCMP receives a complaint they evaluate the complaint and deal with it.
Richard Marceau Bloc Charlesbourg, QC
Mr. Speaker, in the Airbus affair, the Liberals sent the RCMP after Brian Mulroney for less than that.
Why is the solicitor general refusing to ask the RCMP to investigate this affair? Is it to protect the Prime Minister? If not, he—
Prime MinisterOral Question Period
The Speaker
I ask the hon. member to proceed directly to his question.