Madam Speaker, I rise in this adjournment debate as a consequence of the response given to me by the Minister of Agriculture.
I had posed a question to the President of the Treasury Board concerning the government's practice of providing lucrative untendered contracts to friends of the party. I can appreciate why the minister was too embarrassed to provide a factual answer.
In the minister's response, he stated that he personally had a chance to look at the particular instance of an untendered contract and went on to state that in fact there was no videographer, that in fact there was no video and that in fact there was no cost, when in fact he was wrong on all three accounts.
The honourable thing for the minister would have been to stand in his place and correct the record. Instead, in the abuse of parliamentary rules, the deputy House leader was dispatched to the House later on Friday afternoon after question period to give the response to the question that the Minister of Agriculture was too embarrassed to give. What better time to give the answer in hopes that nobody was listening to that grudging apology.
Parliament still has not been informed as to the cost of that untendered contract, and I look forward to hearing the government disclose the cost today.
As it was subsequently pointed out by the member for Acadie—Bathurst, the question period is for the opposition to ask questions and for the government to provide answers. This is our constitutional role. If anything speaks to the democratic deficit, it has to be when ministers of the crown are less than forthcoming in their answers to the members of the official opposition.
Canadian taxpayers are absolutely outraged at the waste of their hard-earned dollars when it comes to things like the Liberal ad scam. Nothing encourages a culture of corruption like untendered contracts. They do not pass a smell test and the Minister of Agriculture knows it.
Liberal members are quick to scream that it is character assassination against the individuals who receive these contracts when the official opposition challenges untendered contracts. These contracts are wrong and the government knows it.
Untendered contracts contribute to the culture of Liberal corruption that is inherent in the Chrétien legacy. It lives on in the finance minister from those years, now the Prime Minister, who claims he knew nothing about it.
The real tragedy, when the Liberal Party squanders taxpayer dollars, is who is hurt by this waste. If anything demonstrated the dream world in which the millionaire Prime Minister lives, it was the surprise on his face during his recent visit to eastern Ontario about the plight of our children.
Liberal government policies are impoverishing the people of rural Canada and nowhere is that more evident than on the faces of our children. Every dollar that is skimmed off into the dirty hands of some Liberal ad man is one less dollar available to fight child poverty.
Child poverty has increased on the new Prime Minister's watch, and for this he should be ashamed instead of trying to pass the buck. Every dollar that is spent because a contract went untendered is one less dollar available to provide health services to our children, our seniors, our sick and the disadvantaged. It is the most vulnerable of our society who end up paying for the Liberal scandals.
As long as there is government waste there is a need for tax cuts. It is better to leave the money in the pockets of the taxpayers than put it in the pocket of some Liberal lobbyist.
I recently had the opportunity to bring some Renfrew county farmers to Ottawa to meet with the Minister of Agriculture to let him know firsthand just how desperate things are getting on the farm. The next several weeks are crucial to our farmers. They need the money to put in this year's crop. People are pleading with the government to do something.
If the government spent less time trying to dream up ways not to answer questions from the official opposition and more time doing its job, Canada would be a far better place.