Debates of June 11th, 2002

Yvon Sabourin

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Desjardins movement recently highlighted the contribution made to its organization by Yvon Sabourin.

This great and active man has had an impressive career. Born in Hull, Yvon Sabourin is a leader and organizer who has devoted himself to building the Desjardins movement in the Outaouais and throughout Quebec for more than 40 years.

He helped found the Caisse populaire Saint-Rédempteur de Hull. He was the director of the Fédération des caisses populaires Desjardins de Montréal et de l'ouest du Québec. He received the volunteer of the year award during Desjardins week, in 1997.

He has also been involved in amateur sport for quite some time. He was the honorary president of the Quebec games in 1971. For seven years, he was the general manager of the Olympiques de Hull hockey club.

Yvon Sabourin has served as president of the Regroupement des bingos de Hull, president of the Hull sports hall of fame, president of Saint-Raymond parish in Hull and treasurer of the Hull Kiwanis Club.

As you can see, this is a man who is fully deserving of this tribute. Bravo, Yvon.

Government of Canada

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

Mr. Speaker,

In a far away land known as Ottawa An old party ruled over all that they saw They had friends in high places Who received many perks Like cash for ad contracts and shows that don't work.

The leader grew bold and wanted to know “I want more power, how far can I go? Raise me up higher I really must see My empire that extends from sea to sea”.

His followers piled up, one on top of another To establish a throne, higher than any other From this vantage he saw Much to his great dismay The auditor general, with reviews underway.

“I've been caught!” he cried loudly to his followers there “Let's put on brave faces and pretend we don't care It's only tax dollars Who's going to complain? They'll keep sending me cash--I need a new plane!”

But his opponents saw through his bluster And gathering all the strength they could muster They stood and shouted “Enough is enough! the truth has been outed”

“The empire is wise to all of your tricks Get down from your throne, there are problems to fix.

Canadians deserve much better than this!”

New Denmark

[Andy Savoy, Liberal, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the world's oldest Danish settlement outside of Denmark is the agricultural community of New Denmark within my riding, Tobique--Mactaquac.

On June 19 the people of New Denmark will celebrate Founders Day to commemorate the founding of their community in 1872. This year's Founders Day will mark the 130th anniversary of the arrival of New Denmark's first settlers.

I congratulate the people of New Denmark on preserving their proud heritage. Where else in Canada can one hear religious hymns sung in Danish on Sundays, sample typical Danish dishes at local restaurants, and see Canadian and Danish flags flying side by side at farms and homes throughout the community? New Denmark is a perfect example of the spirit of tradition tempered by a dedicated patriotism that has made our great country the rich cultural mosaic it is today.

I wish the people of New Denmark every success this June 19, and I hope the community will hold many more Founders Day celebrations for years to come.

Corporation de développement communautaire Drummond

[Diane St-Jacques, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last week, as part of the Canada-Quebec infrastructure program, Senator Michel Biron announced that the Corporation de développement communautaire Drummond will get some $489,000 in financial assistance.

The Corporation de développement communautaire Drummond, which includes 47 community organizations, manages buildings that house 12 organizations, while supporting new community businesses. Through their activities, member organizations reach some 8,500 people on the territory of the regional county municipality of Drummond, and they rely on over 2,500 volunteers.

This project will create one job and will protect over 50 permanent jobs, including 45 in the various organizations and five within the corporation.

Through this financial assistance, the Government of Canada is helping community organizations in Drummond, much to their delight.

World Day Against Child Labour

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—St. Clair, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of the House and all Canadians that tomorrow, Wednesday, June 12 is World Day Against Child Labour.

There are almost 250 million children, or one in six worldwide, in the workforce today. The majority work in unsafe conditions without any health or safety standards or protection of their rights.

In solidarity with children from around the world, the students of Malden Central Public School in Essex County will be placing flowers on their front lawns symbolizing the member states of the International Labour Organization and as a way of encouraging the 53 states who have yet to ratify the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention to do so.

I congratulate and commend the students and staff of Malden Public School with the support of local labour groups and the community for drawing attention to this worthy initiative.

Government Contracts

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

Mr. Speaker, almost two years ago, the Prime Minister's closest advisers were aware of the problems surrounding the sponsorship program. Therefore, the Prime Minister knew.

Their solution was to prepare a communication plan that is now being used, two years later. The Prime Minister tried to prevent the controversy by hiding his government's misuse of funds.

The abuses did not stop, far from it; things continued for two years. The Prime Minister approved the system and gave it his blessing.

Instead of punishing the guilty parties, he reappointed Alfonso Gagliano as minister of public works. The Prime Minister rewarded his henchmen. He pointed the finger at public servants, when it was people from his office who were calling the shots. The Prime Minister is now evading his responsibilities.

In short, the Prime Minister is guilty on all counts: he knew, he covered up and he let things go on. The only way to really clean things up is to launch an independent public inquiry.

Hate Crimes

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval West, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today clerics of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths gave a press conference here in Ottawa to testify to the mutual respect among the various cultural groups and faith communities.

Here is part of their statement, and I quote:

We deplore any act of vandalism or desecration of any religious site, ethnic community centre, school or cemetery of any faith.

We view with horror and sorrow attacks upon religious institutions in our City and throughout Canada in the recent past and we consider any such act to be an assault upon all of us.

We urge that all people manifest a tangible and meaningful respect for each other, and to eject and repel any attempts to vilification of other individuals or groups.

Recently, Canadians of Muslim and Jewish faiths were the target of racist acts and events. This is an important initiative by the religious leaders of three communities as a show of trust and solidarity toward their fellow citizens.

Resource Royalties

[Loyola Hearn, Progressive Conservative, St. John's West, NL]

Mr. Speaker, today the government of Newfoundland and Labrador and Inco signed a statement of principles to develop the Voisey's Bay site. Whether it is a good deal or not is yet to be determined.

What is clear is that the government of Newfoundland and Labrador had to squeeze out of the project every maximum benefit possible, especially in relation to the jobs to be created. It had to do this because the royalties that will flow to the province will be almost entirely clawed back by the federal government.

A province can only better its lot by developing and benefiting from its resources. What incentive is there to develop if Ottawa claws back the royalties, leaving the provinces no better off?

Until the government changes its clawback arrangements on resource royalties, our have not provinces will always be so. We must be able to retain, reinvest and eventually become contributing partners in Confederation.

Arts and Culture

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday saw the conclusion of the Winnipeg International Children's Festival and its 20th anniversary celebration. Once again it was a world class event. The festival has continuously grown over its 20 year history. It now has 30 acts that combine for 120 performances over the 4 days of the festival.

These acts, some from Manitoba and many from around the world, come together to delight children with music, comedy, art, stories, dance and magic, to both educate and entertain. The children's festival continues to be the premier summer family event in Manitoba and a leader in the Canadian children's festival community.

I wish to extend congratulations to everyone who was involved: the organizers, the performers and the more than 700 volunteers needed to make the festival a success.

Manitoba families look forward to next year's event to once again be treated to a delightful, imaginative and entertaining festival experience.

Ethics

[Garry Breitkreuz, Canadian Alliance, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, ethics are so simple when one knows the difference between right and wrong.

No matter how many volumes of rules the Prime Minister writes, they will not make the Liberal government more ethical, honest or transparent.

Only the Prime Minister needs ethical guidelines to remind him not to call the heads of crown corporations about loans to companies in which he may still have a financial interest.

Only his previous public works ministers need ethical guidelines to remind them that it was wrong to provide millions of dollars in contracts to friends of the Liberal Party or that it was wrong to stay in the president's chalet.

Only the solicitor general needs ethical guidelines to remind him that he should not tell the commissioner of the RCMP to revisit a decision he had made months previous about funding for a college headed by his brother.

Canadians do not need new ethical guidelines for their government in Ottawa. We just need a government that knows the difference between right and wrong.

Government Contracts

[Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, just before the Prime Minister called the 2000 election he received a damning internal audit at public works.

What did he do? He had his most senior officials huddle for a communications session on damage control. A secret meeting was held with the bosses of the advertising firms to tip them off on the audit's contents.

Now, two years later, scams in lucrative advertising and sponsorship deals continue to come to light and millions of dollars have kept flowing to these Liberal firms.

My question: Does the Prime Minister now admit that his priority should have been protecting Canadian taxpayers instead of protecting himself, his party and his Liberal business connections?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, there was a meeting at which two members of my personnel were there for five minutes. One stayed for the whole meeting.

As for the result of that meeting, less than two weeks after that everything was on the website. The day after, there was an article by a journalist, Mr. Leblanc, in the Globe and Mail. So much for secrecy. Right after that the minister introduced some reforms to make sure that the mistakes would be corrected in the future.

[Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, some correction. Two years later the scams are there and the money keeps flowing.

The Prime Minister knew about this mess. He did everything to cover it up and nothing to clean it up.

He set the low standard himself with his own BDC dealings in Shawinigate, and in a speech in Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago he said it did not matter if millions of dollars were stolen as long as it somehow served national unity.

My question is this: Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for this? Will he admit that through his own lax ethical standards he signalled that it is okay to rip off the taxpayers of Canada?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, when he talks about ethics he should report what I have said. I have always said that the program of sponsorship has been very, very important in Quebec to make sure that the people of Quebec know that the federal government is doing a lot of good things for the people of Quebec.

The minister acted immediately on the report. The report was made public on the website less than two weeks after it was received and there was an article in the

Globe and Mail.

He should have been awake that day.

[Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is the problem. There is so much fraud and abuse in the sponsorship program that it has to be frozen and the Prime Minister then gets up and defends the program. That says all we need to know.

We have had damning internal audits, a scathing auditor general's report, three ministers of public works and seven police investigations. That is about as high as the minister of public works can count because he refuses to reveal the rest.

Will the Prime Minister today put an end to two years of stonewalling, damage control and half measures and instead order a full public inquiry?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are receiving letters, from members of different parties, to make sure that the sponsorship program comes back right away because there are hundreds and hundreds of organizations in the land that are waiting to have these programs this summer so there will be economic activities in all the ridings, especially in the rural ridings across the land.

[Gerry Ritz, Canadian Alliance, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of public works pledged that under his tenure his department would be open, transparent and accountable.

Those are lofty ideals. It did not happen. It was just the same old talk.

We have not been able to count on the minister to answer even the simplest question, like how many files has he referred to the RCMP? He is scared to do that.

In light of that, could the minister assure the House that the companies implicated in the files that he referred to the RCMP have been frozen out of any more government money?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, my predecessor established the precedent with respect to Groupaction in making sure that sponsorship activity was terminated with those firms and I have done the same.

[Gerry Ritz, Canadian Alliance, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Mr. Speaker, those companies handle a lot more than sponsorship money. We see $250,000 more going to a company that photocopies improperly. What the minister is trying to sell here just does not hold up.

We know that even the auditor general raised serious concerns about one firm's work and referred it to the RCMP herself, saying she had to go there. The minister continued that $250,000 shovelled into that company.

Until the minister comes clean and tells Canadians how many files he has referred to the RCMP, how can we be sure that tax dollars are not still flowing to those disgraced firms?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the issue here is one of making certain that the RCMP has the full scope to do its work without interference.

If we in the House engage in a running commentary about what has been referred to the RCMP and what has not, sooner or later one member of the House, either on this side or that side, is going to end up fouling up an RCMP investigation. The police must not be interfered with.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister will announce new ethics rules in the hope of making the past go away.

One month before the last election, the Prime Minister knew that the sponsorship program was synonymous with inflated invoices, unjustified commissions, and mismanaged public money. He knew, and he did nothing to go after the friends of the party who were benefiting hugely from the system introduced by his government.

Will the Prime Minister admit that the most elementary rule of ethics is to denounce the worst abuses and shed light on the irregularities, not condone them?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, at the request of the opposition, we asked the auditor general to look into all these cases. A certain number of them were referred to the police by the auditor general and a few others by the department.

That was what the opposition requested and it is what we are now doing. When the then minister received the report in 2000, he immediately imposed new rules to ensure that what he had observed would not recur.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, he referred them to the RCMP after the election. During the election, everything was fine.

Once the election campaign was over, the Prime Minister still did not want to see that it was in the public interest to clean up the past.

Since he is now singing the virtues of ethics, could the Prime Minister explain to us why, after the election, he decided to appoint the same minister, rather than clean house, why he kept the same sponsorship program, and the same flawed system at public works, when he knew exactly what was going on? He covered it up.

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, in October 2000, the minister changed the administrative practices in order to ensure that the abuses which had taken place in previous years did not recur.

He acted immediately. All this was made public within two weeks of our being informed. Journalists were already writing about it in October 2000, following the release of the report.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's defence certainly does not hold up to scrutiny, because most of the scandals we have revealed took place after he was aware of the facts.

If the minister has changed the rules, it made no difference. Things continued along their same merry way. That is the reality.

Can the Prime Minister deny that his government's reflex has been not to put an end to the abuse, but rather to call his little buddies together and tell them “Let's take it easy here. There is a problem. It must not get out into the open. We will get a communication strategy and then everything will be fine”? That is the reality.