Debates of March 10th, 2004

Sponsorship Program

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

Mr. Speaker, this game of Liberal musical chairs is not fooling anybody.

The Prime Minister told the House that none of his cabinet knew of any inappropriate activity in the sponsorship program, but now cabinet documents show that the President of the Privy Council tried to get sponsorship money in a way that broke the rules. Is that not inappropriate?

The Prime Minister then put this tainted minister in charge of the program that the Prime Minister promised to cancel. Is the Prime Minister saying this is the Liberal idea of cleaning house?

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is mentioning a number of people and a number of positions. It is not exactly clear who she is talking about.

If she is talking about advertising done by the Government of Canada so that Canadians can have the proper information about government services to which they are entitled, that advertising responsibility is within the Minister of Public Works and Government Services.

It has been totally rectified taking into account all of the comments of the Auditor General. It is up and working. A new agency of record will be appointed within weeks.

Softwood Lumber

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Kamouraska—Rivière-Du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, while the Minister for International Trade is asking Quebec and the provinces to make concessions to the Americans in the matter of softwood lumber, the president of Tembec, on the basis of the many rulings in Canada's favour, is encouraging them to continue fighting for a return to free trade.

Does the government realize that softwood lumber producers must have its concrete support in their struggle, rather than watching it bow and scrape to the U.S.?

[John Harvard, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the hon. member that when it comes to resolving the softwood lumber dispute, that is the number one priority of this minister. In fact, it is his major preoccupation. After all, he has a high regard for all the stakeholders in the industry including the workers and the communities.

We want members to know that the minister has a two track policy: litigation through the WTO and NAFTA, and negotiations. The ultimate goal is free trade. American consumers, after all, want our softwood lumber.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Kamouraska—Rivière-Du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, what is the minister waiting for, then, to introduce a real aid package that would provide loan guarantees to businesses and open up employment insurance to the workers affected by the crisis, as the Bloc Quebecois has been proposing for months?

[John Harvard, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should know that there has been assistance provided. In fact, the last time I checked, the assistance was in excess of $350 million.

I also want to remind the hon. member that the minister has been preoccupied with this issue ever since he became the minister back in December. He has travelled from one end of the country to the other and has held meetings with all the stakeholders. This is his number one priority. He is committed to it and we are seeking a settlement as soon as possible.

Canadien National Railway

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the 5,000 or so Canadian National employees who have been striking for 20 days now have joined the already numerous victims of the Canada Labour Code, which does not protect workers against the use of scabs.

Does the government think it is right that CN should use all kinds of strategies, including, according to the union, the hiring of American replacement workers to counter the strike action by workers?

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, it is not a matter of scabs taking jobs from workers who are on strike.

Yes, other workers have been used to continue providing services to customers, but they are company officers. To date, there is nothing to support the member's accusation and allegations.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister not see the situation at CN as one more reason to amend the Canada Labour Code to include anti-scab provisions to better protect workers, as Quebec has already done?

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, there is a process in place. As a result of this process, we expect to see a resolution as we have seen in the past. In other words, management and the unions must sit at the table to discuss their differences and find a long-term solution.

National Defence

[Jay Hill, Canadian Alliance, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, another day, another federal scandal and another $100 million or so in tax dollars gone missing. This time the money has disappeared from Canada's cash-strapped military, and again phoney invoices are apparently involved.

The Prime Minister was finance minister at the time this computer hardware billing scam at DND was taking place. I would like to know how long he knew that this rip-off of tax dollars was taking place?

[David Pratt, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, this information has been in the public domain for quite some time. In fact the Department of National Defence has taken action to deal with it. An employee was fired. A forensic audit is in the process of being conducted. The RCMP has been called in and payments have been withheld to the company.

I should say as well that at this point we have an aggressive strategy to recover the government's money. The company involved, Hewlett-Packard, is in fact cooperating.

[Jay Hill, Canadian Alliance, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, if it has been for quite some time, we would have thought the department would have done more about it.

Canadians now realize that the sponsorship scandal is only the tip of the iceberg, and the Prime Minister is the captain of the Liberal Titanic .

The Department of National Defence has been defrauded of some $90 million. The Prime Minister keeps talking about transparency. Instead of waiting for the scandal of the day to be made public, will he come clean today and tell us how many other departments were swindled while he was the finance minister?

[David Pratt, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, we are not confirming any particular figure in relation to what has happened with these contracts because the forensic audit is still underway. As I said earlier, the RCMP is looking into the matter.

[Deborah Grey, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, they are a busy bunch over there for sure. There is nothing but things to investigate.

The Prime Minister has had three months to tell Canadians about some of these things that occurred on his watch as the finance minister. Yet it is only when they learn that they have been caught and the media is about to expose these things that they even bother to acknowledge this latest theft.

I would ask the Prime Minister how in the world did he allow our military to get defrauded out of almost $100 million?

[David Pratt, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, it is important to keep in mind that the management systems and audit systems that are in place worked.

These irregularities with respect to this contract were discovered by the processes in place. We are in the process of taking action on this. I am convinced that we will get every nickel that is owed to the Canadian taxpayer.

[Deborah Grey, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, that is funny. We just saw several thousand dollars being taken away. That is more than nickels, that is for sure, in another scandal.

It is unbelievable when we look at some of the facts and the details here, it goes through every single department in the government. Hundreds of millions of dollars out of DND went missing in action when this Prime Minister was in fact the finance minister. We have no idea whether this DND computer scandal is the end or if it is just the beginning. I think we have uncovered only the tip of the iceberg.

I would like the Prime Minister to stand in his place right now and tell Canadians how much more of their money has been mismanaged and in how many departments.

[David Pratt, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, it is very clear that the Department of National Defence in this instance dealt with this properly, working with our colleagues over at the department of public works. There is a concern about these irregularities. I am confident, based on the action that has been taken so far, that we will recover the taxpayers' money.

Public Transportation

[Christian Jobin, Liberal, Lévis-Et-Chutes-De-La-Chaudière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, urban public transit is best for the environment. But unfortunately both the provincial and federal levels of government are gradually losing interest in this mode of transportation and leaving that industry to fend for itself.

I would like to hear the Minister of Transport tell this House briefly how he plans to ensure the development of this means of urban transportation, and what action he is planning for the years to come to maintain urban transit.

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.

The government is investing in urban transit. To date, $735 million has been announced in the past year and more announcements are expected.

Under the Canada strategic infrastructure fund, Transport Canada jointly with our colleagues over at Infrastructure Canada, negotiate the terms and conditions with respect to the provinces and municipalities. We are responsible for the implementation: over $1 billion of federal funding for urban road and transit infrastructure across the country, with a total of close to $4 billion. This confirms our commitment to--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Winnipeg North Centre.

Taxation

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister under whose leadership his government chose to waste $10.3 billion in corporate tax cuts since the year 2000. The sum of $10 billion went straight into the pockets of his corporate friends. Now we hear Liberal corporate friends are getting another tax break.

Why would the Prime Minister choose to give more to Liberal corporate friends when there is a litany of social and environmental problems caused by his own conservative choices? How much is enough?

[John McKay, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member will recollect that in the course of these tax cuts we have had something in the order of 25% corporate tax cuts and 75% personal tax cuts. We have to bear in mind that we do need to keep a competitive tax environment, which really is a notion that is lost on my friend in the corner. If we do not have a competitive tax environment, there will be no wealth generated in this country. If there were no wealth generated in the country, there would be nothing to tax.

Equalization

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

Under the perverse equalization formula, the federal government is now clawing back more than 100% of Saskatchewan's energy revenue, up to $1.25 for every $1 raised by the Saskatchewan government. As a result, Saskatchewan families are now seeing more demand on their provincial tax base.

Will the Prime Minister guarantee that Saskatchewan will not be shafted and that it will be treated in exactly the same way as Newfoundland and Nova Scotia with respect to energy revenue and the equalization formula? It is a very important question for the people of Saskatchewan.

[John McKay, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member raises a valid question. As members know, the equalization formula is an extraordinarily complicated formula involving 33 sources of revenue. Among those revenues, the formula necessarily kicks up anomalies. The hon. member has pointed out one of the anomalies. I can assure the hon. member that the finance minister is very much seized with this issue.