Mr. Speaker, while there are organizations in Quebec working with practically no resources to provide breakfasts to children living in poverty, this government used $250 million to plaster Quebec with Canadian flags, while being very careful to look after the generous donors to the Liberal Party.
While he was Minister of Finance and vice-president of the Treasury Board, the current Prime Minister did not lift a finger to halt this corruption. The same man, however, at the same time, did not hesitate to throw his weight into abandoning the ill, our educational institutions, and the less fortunate, by bleeding provincial transfers dry.
How can the Prime Minister claim that he never knew anything about this diddling with public funds, even though his party's policy chair wrote him a letter on February 2, 2002, informing him that persistent rumours of such activity were circulating.
There are two options: either the former finance minister knew everything and refuses to admit it, or he saw nothing, which indicates total incompetence. In either case, he does not deserve to be Prime Minister.