Mr. Speaker, the president of ACOA clearly stepped outside her bounds. That is why there is ad scam, the political scandal that is going on on the government side, because officials were unwilling to say no to their political masters.
The minister knows full well that the president of ACOA stepped outside her role when she was out promoting a policy document, not government policy, but a policy document of the Liberal Party of Canada.
It is interesting that the Liberals talk of “Rising Tide”. When the document first came out it was a $4 billion package for Atlantic Canada. They kept paring it down until finally they had it down to around $700 million. Note that the other day in the budget papers there was no money for “Rising Tide”, not a nickel. The only money that is referenced is in the supplementary estimates, according to the minister himself.
How can he get on his feet and brag about “Rising Tide” when in fact the government did not put a nickel into it in this budget? In fact it will be a political discussion paper for the next election.
The minister should be ashamed of himself and he should rein in his deputy minister, that is, the president of ACOA.