Debates of Feb. 15th, 2005

Foundations

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, crown corporations have 73,000 employees, manage $78 billion in assets and consumed $5 billion of taxpayer money last year, and the Auditor General pointed out today that four of the largest crown corporations have no chairs or chief executive officers. Governance is a mess at the crown corporations because nobody is minding the store.

If we are spending $5 billion on crown corporations and there is no management, how can we be sure there is not another sponsorship scandal out there?

[Reg Alcock, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, I know the member has a deep interest in this topic and we have talked about it many times.

I want to inform him and other members of the House that at 10 o'clock on Thursday morning I will be tabling the government's report in response to the Auditor General's concern, the result of nearly a year's work looking at how we modernize the accountability regime for crown corporations.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is not reports we want, it is action.

It is interesting to note that Canada Post, VIA Rail and the Business Development Bank have been waiting for months for new chief executive officers. Hon. members may recall that those CEOs left under one mighty big cloud because of the sponsorship scandal.

How much more money has to be wasted, how many more scandals have there to be and how much more Liberal incompetence do we have to tolerate before the government hires good people to do the big jobs?

[Reg Alcock, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, in the foreword to the Auditor General's report members will see that she comments on the fact that there have been enormous problems in the management of large, publicly traded institutions. A lot of changes have taken place in the Ontario Securities Commission and in the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley. We decided to take a look at all of that so we could provide the most modern, up to date, comprehensive review of the governance of crown corporations in 20 years. I will be tabling that at 10 o'clock on Thursday morning.

Marriage

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I understand the official opposition is now vetting speeches on civil marriages out of fear of what their members might say.

In light of this, could the hon. leader of the government in the House assure the chamber that the issue of civil marriages will receive full and open debate, even if the Conservative members are not allowed to take advantage of this opportunity?

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the civil marriage bill, our members will speak to their convictions in a free and unfettered way.

For members across the floor, the issue should not be about hiding behind ineffectual leadership, it should be about standing up for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Canadians.

It is a contradiction in terms to say that the Conservatives will allow a free vote when they will not allow for free speech.

Auditor General's Report

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General made it crystal clear in her report today that the government is hiding from the Auditor General unaccountable foundation money.

Eleven recommendations were made by her and seven were rejected by the government. So much for working with Sheila.

We have seen the sponsorship scandal. Instead of allowing the Auditor General to protect Canadians in all areas of federal funding, the government is stonewalling.

Will the Prime Minister commit today to end the flim-flam and make these foundations fully accountable to the Auditor General, to Parliament and to the Canadian people?

[Reg Alcock, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, let me quote again:

...we cannot state unequivocally that the government's method of accounting for foundations contravenes the accounting standards established by the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

In other words, the foundations are accounting exactly as they should be.

The report went on to say that provisions for corporate plans and annual reports have improved, that most foundations provided information on how much money was spent and how many projects were funded. It also stated, “We found more information each year on foundations in the estimates documents of the sponsoring departments”.

The Auditor General had a great deal to say about this.

Millennium Scholarship Foundation

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government insists foundations are doing well, but for students forced to incur record high education debt, the roof is caving in. What is the government's response? Its response is to build the bank account of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation.

Accrued interest from this foundation alone would pay 200,000 students' tuition for a full year, according to the Auditor General's figures.

Will the government finally redirect millennium scholarship foundation dollars to needs based funding for students?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada]

Mr. Speaker, to date, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation has helped hundreds and hundreds of students in Canada. Each year, improvements are made to better assist students. It is quite obvious that we will carefully consider the Auditor General's recommendations and that staff at the foundation will follow up on them.

The Environment

[Bob Mills, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the government's attempt to comply with Kyoto will hurt Canadian families. They will pay more for electricity, for transportation and for heat.

In a report released today by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation it states that for every household it will cost about $3,000 extra each year.

Will the minister stand today and tell Canadians exactly what Kyoto will cost them?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, in industry it is the same as in politics. In politics we have the slow movers, always late for the industrial revolution, and we have the government that knows that to put the environment and the economy together is the way to go.

We have our champions in the industry who are saying the same thing. I want to quote Eric Lloyd from Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada who said that Kyoto was not a hardship but an economic opportunity.

[Bob Mills, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the chamber of commerce said that Canadian businesses would not be able to compete. Canadian manufacturers say we are going to lose thousands of jobs.

Today the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said that every family will be charged $3,000 more a year because of Kyoto compliance.

Will the minister stop dodging the questions and tell Canadians exactly what it is going to cost them in their family incomes?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, it is true that we will have to invest in let say CO

2

sequestration. Yes, we will have to invest public money in it, but imagine that Canada will invent the best way to have CO

2

sequestration and that we will be able to send it everywhere in the world.

We will decrease megatonnes of CO

2

and we will make megatonnes of money with it.

Canadian Forces

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Mr. Speaker, for days now we have heard cries for help from the newly installed Chief of Defence Staff and his colleagues.

Nearly 300 of our Canadian Forces reservists from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island who take part in South Bound Trooper, an annual training exercise at Fort Picket, Virginia, have been left to rent a charter flight in order to get there.

It appears that the Canadian Forces cries for help are still falling on deaf ears.

Could the minister assure the House that this will not be the practice of the future for transporting our troops?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, in the transport of troops to a given location at any one time we always find the best way to do it. This was the most efficient way to achieve it in that particular circumstances.

We are always able to do that. We always look for the best way to achieve this type of situation and that was what we did in that circumstance.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Mr. Speaker, not only did our reservists have to take a charter flight, they also had to ask Uncle Sam if he could send a plane to Halifax to transport their exercise equipment.

Canadian Forces stated that they simply do not have the air lift capability, echoes of the chief of our air force who appeared before the Senate defence committee and revealed that our air force was stretched beyond its capability.

Can anyone imagine an army that flies charter and asks friends to transport their weapons? Will the minister commit today to the purchase of air lift for our forces and end this embarrassment?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, what the government is committed to is bringing forward a defence review that will allow the House and Canadians to judge the best investments we can make for our military.

I will not commit today to the purchase of any one asset. What the government has made clear and what the Prime Minister has regularly emphasized is that we will have the best equipment and the best trained troops to do the job that we have to do both in Canada and around the world. They are doing it now and in the future they will be able to do it better thanks to the efforts of the government.

Gas Tax

[Mario Laframboise, Bloc, Argenteuil—Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the head of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités had some pretty harsh things to say about the federal government's attitude as far as the transfer of part of the gas tax to the municipalities is concerned. To quote him, “We are in a better position than the feds to assess our own needs. It is up to us, with Quebec, to decide what will be funded, not Ottawa.”

Does the Minister of State responsible for Infrastructure and Communities intend to respect the opinion of the FQM president and therefore leave it up to Quebec and the municipal sector to decide what use will be made of the gas tax money?

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities)]

Mr. Speaker, we have a long history of close collaboration with the Government of Quebec and the Quebec municipalities in seeking shared objectives. We will continue that approach, while respecting provincial jurisdiction.

[Mario Laframboise, Bloc, Argenteuil—Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the head of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, representing 900 Quebec municipalities, finds it obscene that the federal government is talking about a limited margin of manoeuvrability, whereas a surplus in excess of $10 billion is expected for next year.

Does the minister not think Quebec and the municipalities have been squeezed long enough? What is he waiting for to transfer part of the gas tax to Quebec, as promised, with no strings attached.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities)]

Mr. Speaker, we have made a commitment to the municipalities for a total of $5 billion over five years, with the amount in the fifth year being $2 billion. As for the first four years, this will be revealed in the budget. I can, however, give you a guarantee at this time that there will be some serious amounts for the municipalities of Quebec and Canada in the coming budget.

Airports

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there is a report from Transport Canada indicating that the government thinks it needs a private air terminal for cabinet ministers to keep them comfortable and isolated from the public. Besides keeping them isolated, the new terminal would also provide “a drop-off point for catering or flowers”. Is that not a beautiful thing?

How bad is it that ministers cannot mix with ordinary Canadians? Would the minister not be better off scrapping this idea and telling his colleagues that if they do not want to talk to ordinary Canadians, they should lock themselves in their offices until the next election?

[Jean Lapierre, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member was once a Conservative minister and this is exactly the same standard of treatment as in his time. We are talking about $160,000 over three years. We are a long way from a private terminal. We are a long way from deluxe facilities. We simply want to have the same kind of facilities as in commercial aviation in general.

Public Safety

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Calgary North Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it appears that democratic elections can be held in Iraq but not in Kanesatake. The climate of violence in this part of Quebec is such that the protection of citizens cannot be guaranteed. The Liberals meddle in sectors under provincial jurisdiction, but abdicate their responsibilities when courage is needed.

When will the minister take charge and guarantee citizens a minimum level of safety?