Debates of May 23rd, 2002

Government Contracts

[James Rajotte, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the questions will keep coming if we do not get any answers from the other side.

Why would the owner of Groupe Everest make an exception for the minister? It is clear that he wanted the minister to give him favourable consideration in the future. As Mr. Boulay himself said last week in an interview on television “You don't have to be a Liberal to get a contract, but it helps.”

The minister placed himself in a position of obligation to Groupe Everest by accepting a personal favour from its owner. This is unacceptable behaviour from a minister of the crown. Will he do the honourable thing today and resign?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has just raised the names of people who are on the list of assigned agencies for the Government of Canada. Let me remind him there are a whole lot of people who are on that list. And let me tell the right hon. member for Calgary Centre that McKim Advertising Ltd. does it for western economic diversification. If my memory serves me right, that was the group of people who approved and supported him in his failed leadership bid last time.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-De- Beaupré—Île-D'Orléans, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of public works, who has some experience in politics, knew full well that he was in a very awkward position when he used the chalet of the president of Groupe Everest, a firm with which he has had ties since at least the games of la Francophonie.

How can the minister of public works justify that, being in an awkward position, he never ensured that his family had indeed paid to use the chalet and that it was not provided to him for free?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of respect for the hon. member. He knows full well, as I do, that, in fact, the chalet was paid from the moment that the cheque was handed over to the family.

Contrary to what some members are claiming, that did not take place yesterday. The cheque was given at the time of the transaction by other people, namely members of my family.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-De- Beaupré—Île-D'Orléans, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the strategy used by the minister of public works is that of the cheque never to be cashed. The minister knows that.

How can he base his whole defence on a cheque that was not cashed until two months after it was made, that is after the scandal surfaced? That cheque would probably never have been cashed had the matter not become public?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member alleged that, until yesterday, there was never any intention of cashing this cheque. All parliamentarians in this House just heard him. This is the accusation that he is making.

He is saying that those who received the cheque did not intend to cash it, that the priest who received it, notwithstanding the notice, had no intention of cashing it, and that the person who cashed it yesterday did not intend to do so, even though he did. This is what the member just told the House. I hope that he can explain himself outside the House later on.

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

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want answers. All we are getting today is misdirection and spin from the minister.

The fact is the minister did not pay. His family paid. His family did not pay until two months after the fact, after the opposition and the media asked questions.

Why will the minister not come clean about what really happened, tell us whether or not the agreement of $800 happened before he went there and answer some real questions in the House or resign? Will he do one of the two?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has just said that there was no intention to pay notwithstanding the fact that a cheque was issued. I would like him to say on what legal principle this kind of reasoning applies where people issue a cheque, pay for something and then somehow the hon. member is justified in saying that even though something was paid, it does not count.

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

Mr. Speaker, after an investigation of Mr. Gagliano last May, the ethics counsellor described the rules for approving advertising contracts. He said “a recommendation. . .is submitted to the minister of the client department. . .for approval”. So it is the minister who approves.

Did the minister follow the rules and personally approve the awarding of six contracts worth $760,000 to Groupe Everest just days after he spent the weekend at the mansion owned by the president of Groupe Everest?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

No, Mr. Speaker. The member already knows the answer if he listened to the questions from the right hon. member for Calgary Centre yesterday. He asked the same question, word for word. Of course, the answer is no today, just as it was yesterday. It is called delegation of authority. Such a thing exists.

I see that the member is not listening, because that is not the answer he was hoping for.

[Ghislain Lebel, Bloc, Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, since July 2000, Groupe Everest has been awarded 29 federal government contracts worth a total of $2.8 million. Approximately one-third of these contracts were awarded during the month that followed the minister of public works' stay at the chalet belonging to the president of Groupe Everest.

What is the Prime Minister waiting for to launch an independent public inquiry in order to get to the bottom of what appears to be a well organized network benefiting the cronies of the Liberal government?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the minister explained the whole thing. Contracts were awarded according to well established rules. There is delegated authority. Decisions are made by the officials in charge. Contracts are awarded based on company qualification.

This company had qualified, and it won contracts under long established government rules.

[Ghislain Lebel, Bloc, Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, despite promises made by the minister of public works to clean up his department, it is clear, based on the facts, that nothing has really changed since his predecessor left for Denmark. Everything is being done as before.

Once again, I ask the Prime Minister what he is waiting for to launch an independent public inquiry that will give us an idea of the size and scope of this network his government is using.

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have spoken about this every day in the House of Commons. We cannot be any more open than that. With the opposition asking questions in the House of Commons, there is no need for a public inquiry.

Furthermore, the auditor general, who reports to the House of Commons, is in the process of studying the matter. This is an officer of the House of Commons whom we trust.

Members of the House are free to ask us all the questions they like. We cannot be any more open than we are being right now.

[Diane Ablonczy, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the public works minister accepted a weekend at a luxury country home belonging to a Liberal donor receiving millions in government contracts. He clearly violated the conflict of interest code. It states:

Public office holders shall arrange their private affairs in a manner that will prevent real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest from arising.

Why did this very savvy Minister of Public Works and Government Services go ahead and violate the code of conduct?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the preamble to the hon. member's question is factually incorrect. I did not accept the benefit that she alleges I did. She is making the accusation. She knows her accusation is inaccurate.

[Diane Ablonczy, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, so now the minister was not even at the luxury vacation home. That is very interesting. The code continues:

If a conflict does arise, the conflict shall be resolved in the public interest.

When he was loudly preaching integrity for government as a righteous Liberal rat packer, the Minister of Public Works and Government Services demanded that government ministers who violated the conflict of interest code resign in the public interest.

Does the minister still hold to the same high ethical standards today and has he therefore tendered his resignation?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member refers to the public interest. It is of course with that interest in mind that I personally contacted the ethics counsellor earlier this week. Of course I am willing to co-operate fully with him in order to ensure that the right thing is done.

I believe that I have done and will continue to do the right thing for my constituents and my country.

Agriculture

[Rose-Marie Ur, Liberal, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

The standing committee has heard many presentations by farmers expressing their concerns regarding their limited access to minor use pesticides.

Can the minister tell the House how he intends to respond to the committee's recommendation that the government provide at least $1 million a year to help speed up the approval process for minor use pesticides in Canada?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank the hon. member for Lambton--Kent--Middlesex and her colleagues for the work they have done to bring forward and emphasize the importance of this issue.

Today I am pleased to join with my colleague the Minister of Health in announcing a major new initiative of $7.3 million to help provide our industry with safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly minor use products so that it can be more competitive in the agriculture community. As well, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will be doubling its research in that area.

Government Contracts

[Lorne Nystrom, NDP, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I also have a question for the minister of public works. I clearly remember his days in the opposition rat pack 15 years ago. I also remember his asking John Crosbie questions relating to his family problems, and calling for Crosbie's resignation as a minister.

What is the difference between Mr. Crosbie's situation and the minister's present situation? I believe that the present one is worse than Mr. Crosbie's. Why did he call for Mr. Crosbie's resignation, yet has not acted in keeping with his own words by resigning now himself?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question startles me a bit, since he is the one to have these recollections. Without making a comparison, since I am not the one who brought it up, I will answer his question nevertheless.

If I remember the situation correctly at that time, it had to do with documents which indicated that the minister in question had sought out a contract that would benefit the people to whom he has referred.

Employment Insurance

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of the year, crab fishers withdrew from the solidarity fund, when the minister of fisheries refused to allocate crab quotas to plant workers.

Processing plants are planning on shutting down in a few weeks. These plant workers will not even have enough weeks to qualify for EI. The gap created by the Liberal government will begin next week.

My question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. Given that she is already aware of these details, what does the minister intend to do to prevent this situation, which will have a disastrous impact on hundreds of families and that New Brunswick does not want—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The Minister of Human Resources Development.

[Jane Stewart, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, we are concerned as always when employees find themselves without work. In this particular case, however, I would remind the hon. member that we are working with community groups in his own constituency, looking at strategies to deal with the gap between employment from year to year.

I would continue to encourage the hon. member to work with us and to remind him that we transfer considerable funds to his own province of New Brunswick for use in precisely this kind of circumstance.