Mr. Speaker, I want to inform you that I will share my time with the member for Ottawa Centre.
I am pleased to speak to the motion on public ethics that the opposition has introduced today. This issue is quite important. I believe it should interest all parliamentarians and any institution of democratic government. The welfare of our nation and our ability to govern depend directly on the citizens' trust in the institutions that govern and represent them.
The Prime Minister spoke eloquently and extensively on this matter today. He made clear the government's commitment to the highest ethical standards, not only in repayment of the trust placed in us by Canadians but also as the best guarantor we have of effective governance, which allows our society to thrive and our economy to prosper.
Some of the important measures instituted over the last eight and a half years by the government to ensure that this high ethical standard is maintained and strengthened even further have included: the fulfillment of the pledge to appoint an ethics counsellor, which was done in consultation with the opposition leaders in this House; the tabling of a revised and strengthened code of conduct for public office holders, overseen by the ethics counsellor; the introduction of the toughest legislation in the world for regulating lobbyists; and our support for a motion that increased the frequency of reporting to parliament by Canada's auditor general. All of these are steps that have brought greater transparency and accountability into our system of government in this country.
The Prime Minister has just outlined today a new eight point plan to build on these measures and to raise the standard for government integrity and ethics even higher. For my part, I wish to underscore two key points today.
First, even while we take note of these various guidelines and measures to support probity in public governance, we have to recognize that ethics fundamentally are not about rules. They are about people making judgments and guiding their behaviour accordingly. We can always enact book loads of rules, but ultimately Canadians will judge their political representatives by their behaviour, by the moral compass that guides them and by the degree to which they uphold the dignity and standards of their office and of our parliamentary traditions.
What has allowed this government to do particularly well, and Canadians recognize this, is the fact that its actions respect and go beyond these standards.
No member of this government has deviated from the rules. No member of this government has tried to take advantage of public office for personal gain. Never.
This government takes very seriously the trust that the people has in it and that they have renewed many times.
The second point I wish to make relates very much to the first. It is important that parliament discuss issues associated with ethical behaviour, but we must do so in a manner that inspires the confidence of Canadians. Scandal-mongering and the ability to make allegations in this Chamber without legal consequence benefits no one, least of all our electors. It shames this House.
Unfounded and extreme language is the height of irresponsibility, particularly in the use of words like corruption or crime, which have very specific meanings and which clearly do not apply to anything that has been revealed in the House or outside it in recent weeks. This rhetoric reveals a bankruptcy of genuine thought and considered ideas on real questions of policy and government practice.
In the schoolyard when children have nothing better to say they may scream a curse. In parliament it seems that if the opposition has nothing of substance to criticize or to contribute it shouts corruption.
One major responsibility is renewing itself, particularly as the official opposition has now a new leader, that is, to restore some dignity and intelligence to the proceedings of the House.
I would like to encourage my colleagues to make this goal a personal priority.
The dignity of this Chamber depends upon it. Serious questions have every right to be asked and they deserve answers. Where things need to be fixed, they must be fixed. There is no question about that. It is the role of the opposition to challenge the government to do so.
However it also brings this institution into disrepute when extreme language is used, and we hear that repeatedly, without justification, without explanation and without facts.