Mr. Speaker, this goes back to a question that I asked in the House a couple of years ago on a contract where there may have been improprieties by the Government of Canada. I have written the auditor general and the commissioner of the RCMP on this file. It has to do with a company called Lancaster Aviation.
I am concerned about a contractual agreement that Lancaster Aviation entered into in addition to some other points with a company, headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida, called Airspares International owned by an international drug smuggler and money launderer convicted in the United States of America. In his warehouse he has spare aviation parts and military equipment owned by the Government of Canada. I have had this file and carried it forward for two years. The government has yet to come good in terms of delivering information on this file.
The first question that I posed in the House of Commons was to the defence minister, the minister of public works two ministers ago, including the minister who was just sacked a week ago. This file was in the hands of three ministers who have been dismissed by the Prime Minister of Canada because of how they have bungled a number of files.
However in speaking privately with the minister of public works today I suggested to him that he is now in charge of a department and he still has the same parliamentary secretary. I told him that I did not want to hear the same response that I have heard in the House for two solid years.
We want to know what happened to those spare part. How could a company in Canada under contract to the Government of Canada be allowed to go to Florida to engage in a contract with a convicted international money launderer and drug smuggler?
When the ministers stood in the House over the last two years they said that everything was okay and not to worry. However the commissioner of the RCMP said that it did not investigate this file because it was not asked to investigate this file. When ministers stand in the House and respond, they are not responding in a factual way.
I want information as does the Canadian public on this file. It would be interesting to know whether or not any of these spare aviation parts wound up in the hands of international terrorists. Members will recall September 11 and the connection of the aviation industry in Florida. Would it not be nice to know where those aviation parts are and whether or not the Government of Canada was actually paid for those parts? Would it not be nice to know whether or not this convicted felon is still under a contractual arrangement with the company from Milton, Ontario, and how the Government of Canada continues to award this company, Lancaster Aviation, contract after contract without a bidding process?
Those are the kinds of questions we want answers to. We are hoping that the parliamentary secretary under the guidance of the new minister might provide some factual detail on those spare parts and that contractual arrangement.