Mr. Speaker, just to take the minister back a few seconds, I was acting as Poopsie from the Prime Minister's office who was coming to sit and take part in a meeting. However, I appreciate his concern. I know he has grave concerns about that.
How about this one? “The matter is in a blind trust”. It is just so easy for people to say that it is in a blind trust and they have absolutely nothing to do with it.
On June 8, 1999 the Prime Minister said: “It is in a blind trust. Blind means blind. I am just doing what is required. From the day I became Prime Minister I have had no decisions to make on it”.
Whoops. Remember what I just said about October 1993 to March 1994, that he really was a director? Maybe blind is not blind when it comes to blind trusts.
This is another precious one: “I have no recollection”. It sounds like Bill Clinton. I have no recollection of that at all. On June 3, 1996 the Minister of Human Resources Development, who is now the Minister for International Trade, back in the good old days when all of this was happening was talking about Transelec Inc. He said: “I have no recollection of only three Quebec firms having been kept on the short list. I have never seen three Quebec firms on a single short list since I have been minister. We will look into it and report back to the member”. That is another precious one. We will put a committee on that. We will just get a little committee together to study that for the next several years. It is just unbelievable how it goes on and on.
There are more miscellaneous things. Ignace Saw got a Canada jobs grant, which is the successor of the transitional jobs fund. That firm got $250,000. That numbered company is 1191546 Ontario Ltd. It is in the riding of Kenora—Rainy River, which happens to be the riding of the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. It was okayed December 3, 1999 by this HRD minister, only two weeks after she was briefed on the disastrous internal audit, which was released on January 19, 2000.
Of course she had known about it for some time but thought it would never get public, probably. She thought she would just look after it internally, everything would be okay and she might as well just keep dishing out the cash.
Even on the day the minister was briefed about it she repeatedly gave the appearance of normalcy in the House of Commons. I may get to this or I may not. It is hard to say, but I have every question that has been asked about this matter. We could give any number of examples of what she actually said. Here is a statement in response to a question from yours truly on November 17, 1999. She said to me:
As is the case in all regions where the transitional jobs fund has been used, Canadians are working. The unemployment levels are coming down and the government is working with communities together to make sure that this happens.
On December 1, 1999, she said:
Mr. Speaker, I want to make clear to the House that no rules were broken on the application for transitional jobs funds in my riding.
She would of course extend that to mean any other riding. Now, with the history of a few months behind us and under our belts, I am not sure how many RCMP investigations there are.