Debates of April 2nd, 2004

National Security

[Rob Anders, Canadian Alliance, Calgary West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, over the past 10 years the Liberals have drastically cut funding to defence and reduced the size of our military. Now they are scrambling to slap band-aids on the gaping holes in our national security at the last minute.

The past decade gave us the dissolution of the ports police, huge cuts in the defence budget and insufficient support to our intelligence agencies like the RCMP. Instead, the Liberals squandered taxpayer dollars on the gun registry, the HRDC boondoggle and bogus work for Liberal ad firms.

What government puts the needs of cronies ahead of the safety and security of its citizens? Imagine where all those hundreds of millions and billions could have gone instead of the Liberal government lining its own pockets.

It could have gone toward replacing the Sea King helicopters. It could have gone toward port security. It could have gone toward Aurora patrols over our costs. In short, it could have gone toward making Canada a safer and more secure place in which to live.

World Health Day

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on April 7 we will be celebrating World Health Day, which marks the establishment of the World Health Organization.

The WHO established this important day to provide a forum for discussion regarding various health challenges worldwide.

This year the focus is on road safety. The slogan “Road Safety is No Accident” was chosen to highlight the fact that road traffic injuries are preventable.

Improvements in road safety do not happen accidentally, but require deliberate efforts by various sectors of society.

On April 7, I invite all Canadians to joint us to promote road safety, to personally make a commitment to drive, ride, cycle or walk safely and to actively participate in the promotion of road safety initiatives in their communities.

Government of Canada

[Lynne Yelich, Canadian Alliance, Blackstrap, SK]

Mr. Speaker, we in Saskatchewan cheered the tabling of the opposition leader's bill calling for fixed elections dates.

Pummelled by a provincial NDP budget targeting farmers, a federal Liberal government that has failed to re-open the U.S. border and a Prime Minister trying to dig his way out of a scandal by distracting us with budget promises he likely will not keep, the people in my province welcome a measure that will bring some stability and sanity to a government system that otherwise makes a mockery of Parliament.

Budgets, policy and legislation should be about enhancing life for Canadians and not about manipulation and political expediency while we wait for an election that may or may not be called, depending on when it is convenient.

[Jason Kenney, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal record of waste and incompetence speaks for itself. First there was the $1 billion boondoggle, then the $2 billion wasted on the failed gun registry and then, of course, the $100 million ripped off by Liberal firms in the ad scam.

Now there is the $400 million slush fund. Last week the government promised to reveal the details on the slush fund but now it is back-pedalling on that promise too.

Where is the information that the government promised on the slush fund? Where did the money go?

[Joe Jordan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, the President of the Treasury Board has initiated a process that is looking at the funds and how they were allocated to departments. It is a complicated process, and when the process is complete the hon. member will have his information.

[Jason Kenney, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, first government officials said that the information was publically available and then they admitted that it was not. Then they said that they would release it in days and now they say that it has become very complicated and that we will just have to wait.

How is it that the Liberal government ran a $400 million secret slush fund and now it does not even know where the money went?

[Joe Jordan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's sort of oversimplification of the complexities of the workings of government I think call into question his certain skill set if he ever wants to apply that.

We have made a commitment to track this money down. We will put together a list of the projects and work our way through the main estimates so that when we go to the people with this information it will be complete.

[Jason Kenney, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we do believe in a simple principle, that Canadians have a right to know where their tax dollars go. That is why the whole idea of a secret slush fund, the Liberal honey pot, is offensive to Canadians.

Why did the government promise a week ago to release it within days? One official from Treasury Board said that it could be released today. That was on March 26.

The clock is ticking and an election is approaching. Canadians want to know where their $400 million went. Why will the government not release this information?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure the hon. member that all expenditures that drew on the unity reserve were routinely reported in the public accounts and are therefore part of the public record.

As he should know, Treasury Board is compiling information regarding the use of the reserve. That process does take some time to complete but I can reassure the hon. member that the information will be forthcoming.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is funny how it will be forthcoming when the government promised it over a week ago.

All Canadians now know that the Prime Minister's word means nothing. Yesterday we had to not only witness the sad spectacle of the Prime Minister breaking yet another promise for democratic reform by appointing candidates in B.C. rather than trusting the judgment of British Columbians, now we learn that he has no intention of keeping his word to reveal where the money went from Jean Chrétien's secret unity slush fund.

Why has the Prime Minister chosen to cover up the flagrant abuse of tax dollars by Jean Chrétien?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I find it very interesting that the opposition is so interested in the internal workings of our party. I wonder if names like Jim Hart, Grant Devine and Ezra Levant mean anything to the members of the official opposition.

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

Mr. Speaker, unlike the government and unlike the Prime Minister, what we are interested in is democracy.

Jean Chrétien blew about $50 million a year dispensing Liberal sweetness from his secret honey pot. The Prime Minister has backtracked on yet another of his hollow promises to improve government transparency by deciding to extend the cloak of secrecy surrounding this unity slush fund.

What is the Prime Minister hiding from Canadians? Is he afraid that his party will sink yet further in the polls if the truth comes out?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, if I were the official opposition I would be worried about the polls.

I want to reassure everyone that the unity reserve was discontinued in budget 2004. No new project has been initiated by this government through the reserve. All expenditures that drew on the unity reserve were routinely reported in the public accounts and therefore are part of the public record.

I ask all members to give Treasury Board the opportunity to compile the information, but it is all in the public record.

Sponsorship Program

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this morning's Globe and Mail revealed that the Liberal candidate in Ottawa Centre, Richard Mahoney, has privately confessed that the team of the current Prime Minister discreetly intervened with Jean Chrétien to get rid of Chuck Guité, having known well before the first reports came out in 2000 that the sponsorship program posed a problem.

How can the Prime Minister, who knew about this and is now telling people, “If you know something, speak up”, explain that his people stopped there, and decided to keep the problem a secret, in short, allowed the sponsorship scandal to continue?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I have no intention of commenting on gossip or hearsay that is found in some article in the newspaper.

Let me comment on what the Prime Minister is doing to get to the bottom of the sponsorship program and to learn the truth in relation to what happened with regard to that program. As we know, the public accounts committee is at work.

I call upon all members of the opposition to stop stonewalling the work of that committee, stop wasting the time of public officials who sit in that room waiting for these people to get their act together, and work with government members on this side of the House to learn the truth.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let us not be taken for fools. Richard Mahoney is one of the PM's close advisors, as the Deputy Prime Minister is well aware.

Will the government acknowledge that, if Richard Mahoney is today refusing to comment on these embarrassing revelations, it is because the Prime Minister had been aware of the situation since at least the year 2000 and deliberately chose to keep quiet?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, no one is going to comment, as far as I am concerned, on hearsay, rumours and gossip that appears in the newspaper.

I would bring the opposition back to the fact that we on this side of the House want to learn the truth in and around the sponsorship program. That is why it is so distressing to see members of the public accounts committee from the opposition parties continue to stonewall and hold up the work of the committee, as opposed to getting to the bottom of this matter.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government seems to be suffering from the disease of inability. Inability to guarantee that Chuck Guité will appear before the committee prior to the election, and now the President of the Treasury Board is suffering from the same disease, since he says he is unable to provide documents on the national unity fund, which was used to fund the sponsorship scandal, despite the commitments by members of the Prime Minister's Office.

Can the government guarantee that these documents will be available before the election is called?

[Joe Jordan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, as has been repeated many times in the last 20 minutes, the President of the Treasury Board has instructed that the supplementary estimates be examined and the list compiled. The information will be forthcoming as soon as the government is in a position to provide a complete picture of what happened.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, these documents should have been available a week ago now, and we are still waiting. The government has used all kinds of pretexts to delay having to produce the list of events paid for by the same fund used for the sponsorship scandal. We can see right through the government's little game.

Will the President of the Treasury Board stop playing games and make these documents public before the election?

[Joe Jordan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, just to repeat the answer again to the same question, Treasury Board is working through the various departments that had moneys allocated from this fund. We are going to compile that list. When the information is available, we will make it public.

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

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

The Prime Minister has claimed that he wants to get to the truth and to the bottom of the Liberal corruption scandal. It is time that the truth did come out. I would like to now blow the whistle on another Liberal ad scam.

I want to know whether or not the Deputy Prime Minister can confirm that the Prime Minister received a memo dated April 19, 1994, from his then chief of staff, pushing officials in government about which Liberal ad firms to use in the Canada savings bonds ad strategy campaign which was worth millions of dollars?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member's question refers to correspondence that was discussed in the House some weeks ago. I think our responses at that time clarified that situation.

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

Mr. Speaker, this memo I have today was never raised in the House of Commons. It is from the then chief of staff to the Prime Minister, Terrie O'Leary, and the Prime Minister is clearly copied on the memo, which is now public for the first time and I am willing to table it.

It tells officials which Liberal ad firms are to compete for this multi-million dollar ad campaign. The top firm on the list is McKim Communications, the same firm that assisted the Prime Minister in his Liberal leadership bid.

In light of this, will the government agree to expand the standing committee's terms of reference to include a probe into the activities of the Prime Minister?

[Walt Lastewka, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the public accounts committee has been dealing with a number of items.

The problem that we have had in the public accounts committee is the stonewalling and filibustering of the opposition while we have been trying to ensure that all the data goes to the committee. In fact, the opposition is slowing down which people are going to appear as witnesses over the next two weeks.

If we had not had the filibuster, we would have been able to tackle more of the agenda items. The opposition is filibustering and it has slowed down the committee, and in fact wasted the Auditor General's time and Norman Steinberg's time.