Debates of May 1st, 2002

Ethics Counsellor

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Port Moody--Coquitlam--Port Coquitlam.

[James Moore, Canadian Alliance, Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, with governing like this, thank God this Prime Minister is not running again.

In his red book, the Prime Minister promised that there would be an independent ethics counsellor reporting to the House. He broke his word.

Could the next Liberal leader please stand up and tell Canadians whether or not he or she will resuscitate this promise to Canadians?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, in 10 days from now I will have my eighth leader of the opposition on the front bench. Since that party has had a new leader the quality of the questions has gone down. I see the former leader smiled when I said that.

Wind Energy

[Jean-Yves Roy, Bloc, Matapédia—Matane, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on November 16, 2001, the member for Bonaventure--Gaspé--Îles-de-la-Madeleine--Pabok announced funding of $2.2 million towards the development of the wind industry in the Gaspé.

Yesterday, the member for Beauce announced another $2.2 million for the same industry.

Are we to understand from these two announcements, including the one made yesterday by the member for Beauce, that Economic Development Canada's investment in Gaspé's wind industry has gone up to $4.4 million?

[Claude Drouin, Liberal, Secretary of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec)]

Mr. Speaker, we have perhaps taken a page from the book of the PQ, which announces the same news four times.

What I would like to say today in the House is that when the hon. member for Bonaventure--Gaspé--Îles-de-la-Madeleine--Pabok made the announcement, it was conditional on approval by the backers. This was recently given and I confirmed it yesterday in the House.

That is why we announced it. We give you the real news: $2.2 million.

[Jean-Yves Roy, Bloc, Matapédia—Matane, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in light of what we have just heard from the member for Beauce—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. The hon. member for Matapédia--Matane.

[Jean-Yves Roy, Bloc, Matapédia—Matane, QC]

Mr. Speaker, what hurts the Gaspé is the government making the same announcement two and even three times, rather than announcing a real program to develop the wind industry in the region.

What is the government waiting for to show as much interest in the wind industry in the Gaspé as it has shown in oil in Newfoundland?

[Claude Drouin, Liberal, Secretary of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec)]

Mr. Speaker, does the hon. member want us to announce it a third time? No. Seriously, we will continue to do so.

If we receive applications for other projects, we will analyze them as we have always done. We will show that we are looking out for the development of the regions, as we did with the Gaspesia mill, as we did with the aluminum technologies centre.

These are projects which we have supported in the regions and which we will continue to support because Economic Development Canada is looking out for the development of the regions.

Ethics Counsellor

[Carol Skelton, Canadian Alliance, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Mr. Speaker, a dark cloud still hangs over the government because of its poor handling of recent ethical questions. Mixing of partisan activity and public business by the finance minister and the industry minister is wrong. Canadians need more accountability.

Will the Prime Minister create an independent ethics counsellor who reports to parliament right now?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, at the request of the committee, the ethics counsellor has appeared in front of the committee many times in a year. He already reports regularly to the House of Commons.

I do not understand why they have problems. If I ask for his advice he gives me advice. If the hon. member wants to ask him for advice he will give her advice because that is his role.

If people want to know what he is doing, he appears before the committee and has not refused to debate any issue in front of the committee of the House of Commons.

[Carol Skelton, Canadian Alliance, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has broken his promise to Canadians. Seventy percent of Canadians think the government is corrupt.

The Prime Minister's ethics coach does not have the tools to do his job. Why will the Prime Minister not keep his promise? It is time to create an ethics counsellor who reports to parliament and not just to the Prime Minister. What is the hold up?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry to inform the hon. member but she was included in that survey because it stated that all politicians were like that.

It is because of the irresponsibility that we see in the House of Commons that they are painting themselves in the corner.

Research and Development

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, Canadian researchers need to have flexible and powerful tools that will support innovative projects requiring large amounts of processing power distributed over multiple locations.

Could the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development inform the House what the government is doing to ensure that our researchers are getting this type of network support and to ensure that Canada remains competitive in a knowledge based economy?

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Secretary of State (Science]

Mr. Speaker, I recently announced with the Minister of Industry a $110 million funding agreement to develop and operate CANet 4. CANet 4 is an advanced research and innovation network, the first of its kind in the world. It gives Canadian scientists and researchers access to excellent information to do leading edge work in areas such as health care, environment and education.

It also allows our scientists to pursue worldclass research in these growing areas. Canada is number one in this field.

Ethics Counsellor

[John Reynolds, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, let us do a review: consultant to the finance minister raises money for him on the side; another minister uses tax dollars to organize his leadership campaign in Manitoba; another minister sends grants and gives fat contracts to chums who worked to fulfill leadership dreams. Those are just the recent stuff. We have Shawinigate, billion dollar boondoggles, phoney reports, smelly land deals and, yes, $101 million of new jets.

How much more will Canadian taxpayers have to endure until the Prime Minister lives up to his promise and gives Canadians an ethics counsellor who reports directly to all parliamentarians?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the ethics counsellor appears before the committee all the time. This institution did not exist. It was established with the agreement of the opposition party in 1993.

I think that on the other side we had one member who used all the money to help another person for his campaign. It was well publicized, the member for Calgary Southeast. He used all that he had at that point going everywhere, not to educate the Canadian people but to try to have for this House a better leader than the one we will have next week.

[John Reynolds, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, let us go through that list again. The finance minister hires his bagman as a departmental consultant to advise on energy taxation. Another minister pads his department payroll with a party organizer. Another minister with leadership dreams uses grants and contracts to build her fundraising team.

If we add those things to all the other scandals, it is a banquet of bungling, a smorgasbord of sleaze and a cornucopia of corruption.

When will the Prime Minister live up to his promise to have an ethics counsellor who reports to all parliamentarians?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, talking about sleaze, a guy by the name of Jim Hart was persuaded to give up his seat to the leader of that party so he could come into the House of Commons. He was promised $50,000 but was not given one damn cent. The guy lost his seat and members of his party turned their backs on him. That is the party which now gets up and gives us little lectures.

Book Industry

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the recent announcement of the bankruptcy of one of Canada's largest book publishers and distributors has raised concerns within the industry.

Will the Minister of Canadian Heritage agree that the time has come for the Liberal government to abolish the GST on books, as the Government of Quebec has, in order to give a hand to Canada's book industry.

What is she waiting for before she acts?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, we have a fairly comprehensive system for helping publishers. One of its components is the Book Publishing Industry Development Program, which provides $40 million in direct financial assistance, half of which will go to publishing houses in Quebec.

That said, I believe everyone involved in the publishing industry has a great deal of respect for Jack Stoddart. We hope a solution can be found for the problems his publishing house is experiencing. This is a person who has put a great deal of effort into building his publishing house in Canada, and Canada is greatly indebted to him.

Leadership Campaigns

[Ted White, Canadian Alliance, North Vancouver, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is ridiculous to expect the public to believe that Mr. Thiara used $5,200 worth of airline tickets to Winnipeg and back without filing any expenses.

How does the Minister of Industry explain the contradiction? If his assistant went to Winnipeg on government business, why was there no expense account? If the assistant went to Winnipeg to work on his leadership campaign, why the expenditure on the air tickets? How does he explain this use of taxpayer money?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, disclosure was made of all expenses for which a claim was made against the public purse. Is the member complaining that insufficient expenses were claimed?

I have to tell him that the facts are the facts. We gave a complete answer to the ATIP request entirely in accordance with the guidelines. Any money that was claimed back as public expenses was used for public purposes.

Microbreweries

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government is refusing to grant a reduction of the excise tax to microbreweries, on the grounds that there is not enough time to draft a complex piece of legislation to eliminate the injustice done to microbreweries, whose foreign competitors benefit from a highly preferential excise tax treatment.

Since there is very little on the legislative agenda, will the Minister of Finance pledge to immediately start working on a bill to modernize the Excise Act for microbreweries, and introduce this legislation before the end of the parliamentary session?