Mr. Speaker, I move that the third report of the Standing Committee on Finance, presented on Monday, December 20, 2004, be concurred in.
I want to state at the outset of the debate today on this concurrence motion that I am very pleased to split my time with my leader, the leader of the official opposition, the member for Calgary Southwest.
Since it has become a national story, despite the poor performance, I would like to begin by making a few comments about the Prime Minister's pitiful performance last night. He confused a crisis in the Liberal Party of Canada with a national crisis. He abused the office of Prime Minister to have a national television event, which normally would be reserved for times of crisis for the nation when the prime minister, the leader of a nation, would have to communicate very clearly to the people, in both official languages, on something that would threaten the very survival of the nation. That is not the case.
We are talking about is a scandal, the worst in Canadian history, that threatens the very existence of the Liberal Party of Canada.
He has said and has maintained that we should cut him some slack because he is the one who launched the Gomery inquiry. I think it is obvious to all Canadians that he had no choice in launching the Gomery inquiry. We need to be very clear about this.
The current Prime Minister wanted to have an election last year, early in his mandate as Prime Minister, as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, to get his own fresh mandate. He knew the only way he could go to the people of Canada last year in an election was if he called that inquiry. It was his only defence. Therefore, he called it. He set it up and then he determined that he would have to circumvent it.
There was an inquiry taking place at the public accounts committee, as we all know, it was televised, but he shut that down. He had his members on that committee shut down the only inquiry that was ongoing. Then he went to the people last May and June in an election campaign without waiting for one witness to appear before the Gomery inquiry. Very clearly, he had to do that. It was his only defence in the election campaign that he knew he would call.
The other reason he wanted to call it is he wanted to get even with the former prime minister of this country. He wanted to seek revenge when the former prime minister happened to time his retirement just before the final report of the Auditor General. He left the whole mess for the current Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister decided that a good way to get even with the former prime minister, Jean Chrétien, was to call an inquiry and point the figure.
However, last night we found out the truth about one thing at least. He finally accepted the responsibility that he was negligent as finance minister in not watching over the public purse. He had to know what was going on and he chose to look the other way.
He finally admitted last night to the Canadian people that he should have been more vigilant. Therefore, I would as the question. If he should have been more vigilant when he was number two man, when he was finance minister, in watching over the public purse, why in heaven's name would Canadians want to wait eight more months for that Prime Minister when he is in control of the federal treasury? Imagine how much money will be wasted in the next eight months?
People say that we should not have an election right now. It might cost $250 million to $280 million. How many billions will the Liberal government blow over the next eight months if Canadians were to let it stay in power?
The last point I want to very quickly make is a reality. It is how this place has become dysfunctional and who is to blame.
As House leader for the opposition, I can say we have acted responsibly. We have tried to make this Parliament work. The leader of the official opposition took the unprecedented step of having the official opposition in this Parliament abstain on the budget to ensure the survival of this Parliament. That had never been done in history. Our leader did that because he wanted to try everything possible to make this Parliament work.
What do we get for it in return? On Monday night the government House leader cancelled opposition day motions, one of the basic tenets of democracy in this place. The basic tenet of democracy is opposition parties having the opportunity of holding the government accountable, and the government cancelled those days.
As we move forward, let us ensure that Canadians clearly understand who is to blame for this place being dysfunctional.