Mr. Speaker, I think it is a good thing today that we begin this very important debate on the rules to ensure parliamentarians' integrity and accountability.
I deeply regret the fact that, right now, there are only three Liberals here for this important debate. I think this speaks volumes.
Four years ago, the former member for Halifax West, a distinguished and very respected colleague of mine who spent his life serving the public, presented a new code of ethics.
I will interrupt myself to say that I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Winnipeg--Transcona.
I was just saying that my former colleague, Gordon Earle, presented a new official code of ethics to protect the public interest against actions taken by a parliamentarian to promote private interests.
It was at that time that the former member for Halifax West introduced this important legislation. Six years had already passed since the government came to power on the promise that it would take the initiative to establish the true independence of an ethics counsellor who would report to the House and that it would introduce the legislation that today the Prime Minister has the gall and audacity to stand in the House to talk about as part of an important action plan that even as of this moment we still have not seen and that the Prime Minister said would be forthcoming, when in fact we may not see a good deal of it until the fall.
That in itself gives a pretty clear message to the people of Canada as to what kind of priority the government gives the whole question of ethical conduct in government.
Since then, after this bill was first introduced, my party introduced it again on two occasions. As the leader of the NDP, I did so myself as recently as on March 14, 2001. I want to briefly repeat what I said on that day when I introduced this bill.
The legislation provides for an ethics counsellor who would report directly to parliament and would do so annually. Today the Prime Minister says “Well, we are actually going to introduce that as part of a future action plan”. Such legislation exists in every province and territory in the country and in many other countries that have parliamentary systems similar to that of Canada.
What in the name of heavens has kept the government from dealing with this issue when province after province and nation after nation with similar parliamentary systems have long since had such legislation in place?
As I said on March 14, 2001, when I introduced the legislation:
It is clear that we need such conflict of interest legislation and such a code of conduct to prevent the further erosion of confidence in parliament as an institution and to restore confidence that parliamentarians will act not with conflict of interest but with the public interest at heart.
I want to deal very briefly with what the Prime Minister said here this morning in response to my questions about what had taken the government so long to respond in the heat of the kind of controversy and taint that swirls around the government today. The Prime Minister stood up and used an age old tactic. He tried to deflect from the real issues that his government has refused to deal with and, in the most condescending way, congratulated me and my party for the fact that we alone in the House have continued to focus on the real problems that concern everyday working people in this country.
It is a neat tactic but it is a cheap trick. I do not know whether the Prime Minister wants to hear this, but he should know that people are fed up with him pointing again and again at the opposition to say that the erosion of public confidence in parliament and parliamentarians is the fault of the opposition because it keeps raising the issues.
It is absolutely clear for all to see that the government has failed to provide legislation that would ensure the highest standards of public conduct. It is the government that has, in a kind of ironic, perverse twist, been willing to endure the battering that it has taken from the opposition, particularly from the official opposition, because it has allowed Liberals to get off the hook from dealing with the real issues of the day.
That is why we are doubly furious at what has been going on with the government. I do not think it is too extreme or too paranoid to suggest that the government has rather enjoyed the erosion of public confidence around parliament. I also believe that the official opposition is quite pleased with that erosion of confidence because it serves its objectives, which are to erode confidence and to shrink people's expectations of what they should believe government is capable of and should be required to accomplish on behalf of the people.
What do they get? They cultivate a climate of non-confidence that then results in people being easily led to the next conclusion that if they cannot trust the government, the Prime Minister, parliamentarians or cabinet ministers then they should just remove a lot of the functions of government that are within the public domain, accountable to the public and turn them over to the private sector where they can now commercialize them, commodify them and establish them within the realm of the marketplace on a for profit basis.
That may seem like a long stretch but we have watched the systematic erosion of confidence in the parliamentary process. What is truly heartbreaking is that, in tandem, the Liberal government and the official opposition have accomplished that shared objective to an alarming degree.
Therefore, I rise today to object strenuously to the constant opportunity that the government gives to the Alliance, the official opposition, to tear down and do damage to the reputation of parliamentarians and to the confidence in government that people in a democracy need and deserve and that we mutually have a responsibility to re-establish.
In conclusion, let me say that when the Prime Minister stands in his place and outlines an action program, there is no more reason for people to go away from parliament believing or for the public to believe that the government means business and has any serious intention of delivering, any more than the Liberals did when they made promises to do the very same thing in 1993 when they sought office.
The government alone bears the responsibility for the damage that has been done and the government, by virtue of being the government, continues to bear the responsibility to clean up the mess it has created.