Mr. Speaker, I will share my time with the hon. member for Trois-Rivières.
This was a nice try on the part of the hon. member for Ottawa Centre, but he should have gone a little further in his reflection when he said that we should leave partisanship aside. Today, the purpose of the motion by the hon. member for Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier is precisely to ensure that we will have a true debate free from any partisanship. In fact, it is following the plea made by the hon. member for LaSalle—Émard that the Bloc Quebecois brought forward this motion today, so that Liberal members might also have the opportunity to take part in this most important debate. We want to talk about transparency, effectiveness, improved management and also fairness in the appointment process. We also want to ensure that these appointments are not made on the basis of friendship with a party, whether it is the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the Canadian Alliance or whichever party may be in office. Today, it is the Liberal Party, and it has a long track record regarding appointments.
This evening, when the time comes to vote, we will see if this is turned into a partisanship issue. The members who should take an interest in this debate are the ones who will support the next Prime Minister of Canada, probably the former Minister of Finance, who also raised the issue of how things are done in the House of Commons regarding appointments, and the lack of democracy in Parliament.
What do members have to do when they sit on committees and government members are asked to block amendments to a bill or to gag a committee? This way of doing things does not bring much to the debate and does not often do justice to the thinking that is done in the various committees, because there is a degree of partisanship. Quite often, the members who show up to vote did not hear witnesses, they did not hear what was said and they did not bring any contribution to the work of the various committees. These same members sit on other committees or they pursue other interests and they only come to block the vote of opposition parties.
We now have before the House a motion brought forward by the hon. member for Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier. By the way, I want to congratulate him for putting this motion forward.
This morning, the government House leader, the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, was rather mean when he said that the Bloc Quebecois has nothing to propose, that we should be debating other issues like health and provincial transfers and that we were wasting our time today.
I do not believe that we are wasting time here. We are only considering, like everyone elected to this House should do, the way to make a fair contribution to parliamentary debate and to question the way things are done here. I thought the member was rather mean, especially since he had to be replaced as public works minister after violating the ethics guidelines. We all remember how sad he was at the time, how close to tears he was. The Prime Minister had to find him a new portfolio to save him from any further embarrassment. But this morning, he joked that the Bloc Quebecois was not taking part in any debate.
I remind the House that, yesterday afternoon, we had a take note debate on a government motion concerning health care. Where was the health minister? If she had wanted to take part in the debate, she would have shown up in the House.
I only raise this issue because the government House leader talked about it at length this morning when he attacked the opposition and said that we were not being serious.
Let me come back to the issue now before the House. We all know that the Prime Minister is responsible for appointing 3,500 senior officials of Crown corporations and other officials.
Of these 3,500 positions, there are 1,000 federal judges, 100 heads of missions abroad, ambassadors, 1,500 people who work part time as directors, for Crown corporations and so on, and another 500 people who work full time.
So, that makes for a lot of people to appoint. Who does the Prime Minister think of? Friends of the party, people who helped him out. We have a pretty extensive list of people who were named directors at the CBC, for example.
While I am on this subject, given that I sit on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, I would like to mention a few people, like Guylaine Saucier, who is Chair of the board of directors; she is a member of the Council for Canadian Unity.
Roy L Heenan, chairman and senior partner of Heenan Blaikie, has been on the board of the CBC a number of times since 1974. He has received millions of dollars from the CBC to represent it in its conflicts related to human resources. Heenan Blaikie continues to represent the CBC. Mr. Heenan is also a member of the corporation's labour relations committee. So, we know the sponsorship controversy quite well. We have seen how the friends of the party are rewarded handsomely.
James S. Palmer, lawyer and chairman of Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer, who is also a member of the Council for Canadian Unity.
Mr. Campion, who is also a member of the committee, organized a golf tournament to raise money for the Liberal Party of Canada; the entry fees for the tournament were between $500 and $5,000.
Mr. Thomas R. Wilson, president and CEO of Oceanic Adventures Inc, was the president of the Liberal association for the federal riding of Rosedale.
L. Richard O'Hagan, who worked with Lester B. Pearson as special adviser to the Leader of the Opposition, from 1961 to 1963, and then as press secretary to the Prime Minister after the federal election of 1963. He was named special adviser to the Rt. Hon. Pierre Elliott Trudeau in communications. He is also a member of the Council for Canadian Unity.
Jane Heffelfinger, who also has ties to the Liberal Party.
Robert Rabinovich and Claridge Inc. and Claridge Investments are two associates fully owned by the Charles Bronfman trust.
This is the way it is with a number of Crown corporations, and we can see that friends of the Liberal Party are generously rewarded for their years of service.
So, on the issue of effectiveness, when people have ties with a party, do they all have the knowledge and the qualifications to sit on the certain boards of directors or certain Crown corporations?
It is the taxpayers who pay for the operation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Why is it that parliamentarians here in this House, who have been elected by the people, could not take part in the election of some senior officials in the whole of government operations?
It is sad to see how some Liberal Party members and ministers, because their hands are tied, are dealing with this opposition day and the Bloc Quebecois. If it were not for the member for Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier today, the government would certainly not have had the courage to deal with a very important issue for democracy.
There have been several scandals and we know very well how in committee one can impede the serious work that has to be carried out to find out what damage has been done. We only have to think about the case of Ambassador Gagliano, who was shipped off to Denmark, and whom the government no longer talks about, as well as all the scandals that happened with respect to sponsorships.
There must be transparency and equity toward the people who have some qualifications. We could also have pointed out many appointments that were made to this immigration committee. Many people sit on it. They have absolutely no qualifications to sit on this committee. There are other people from the civil society, who are perhaps not close to the Liberal Party, but who would also have more qualifications to sit on it. So it is basically the fundamental issue that is raised in this motion: are we in favour of more equity, of more transparency—