Debates of April 7th, 2005

Sponsorship Program

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, with new allegations against the PQ, if the Bloc wants to take allegations as fact, then it should change its slogan. Perhaps it is not appropriate to have a slogan that says, “Un parti propre au Québec”. Perhaps the Bloc will agree with us and wait for Justice Gomery's report. That would be the proper thing to do.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like the minister to know that the Bloc is going to clean house in Ottawa.

The system set up by Brault and Corriveau involved the highest circles in the Liberal Party. The PMO awarded contracts and they were funded by the unity reserve. It approved budgets and, the organizers set up a fund-raising system. Reimburse the dirty money. That is what people want.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, these are serious allegations, but they are not facts. It is not wise for the government or the party to act on allegations. We must wait to have all the facts before responding. This promise was made and it will be kept.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

Order, please. Perhaps the storm has subsided for the moment.

The hon. member for Toronto—Danforth.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is high time the Prime Minister took responsibility with regard to corruption in the Liberal Party.

The Prime Minister's political games must stop. After 12 years, people have seen enough political games. At the heart of this scandal are Liberals reflecting the image of a corrupt federalism.

Will the government finally show leadership and tell Quebeckers that this is a Liberal scandal not a federal one?

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

Mr. Speaker, it was the Prime Minister who established the Gomery Commission. It was the Prime Minister who said that we would get to the bottom of this. It is our party that today had our counsel before the Gomery Commission arguing for a lifting of the publication ban. We want the testimony in the public domain. We want to receive Mr. Justice Gomery's report. We want to get to the bottom of this.

What do all those people want? They take little fragments of testimony and they impugn people's reputations. They set out to--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Toronto—Danforth.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's pathetic plans and performance should concern all honest federalists in the country. What Canadians are about to see unfold before them through the media is an example of the Liberals treating the public purse as their private piggy bank. It is about to leave the impression that federalism is corrupt.

Will the Prime Minister finally take responsibility for this situation, for the country?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on this. For decades there are good, federalist Quebec Liberals who work to keep the country united, and their reputations have been unfairly tarnished by these allegations.

That is one of the most important reasons why our Prime Minister and our government are firmly committed to getting to the bottom of this issue so we can move forward. We are defending the reputation of not just the Liberal Party. We are defending the reputations of all federalists. We are also getting to the bottom of this issue for the Canadian taxpayer because it is the right thing to do.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the evidence is now public. We know that misappropriated sponsorship money funded the Liberal campaigns in 1997 and 2000. Jean Brault said he knew that sponsorship money his company received was to go to the Liberal Party.

Will the Liberal Party and the government commit today that every dollar taken will be returned forthwith?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, a couple of weeks ago the leader of the Conservative Party said he believed that witnesses were lying to the Gomery commission. On Sunday, the deputy leader of the Conservative Party said that some of the witnesses' testimony was in fact a sham. If witnesses' testimony, according to the Conservative Party deputy leader and leader, is lies and shams, then why should we not wait until Justice Gomery completes his work so that we can really rely on the facts, the analysis and all the testimony?

I believe Canadians trust Justice Gomery to get to the bottom of this issue, not those people sitting over there.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Speaker, Jean Brault flowed sponsorship money through his corporation which landed up in the pockets of the Liberal Party. Jean Brault donated over $1 million to the Liberal Party, all donated under the table. Will this government commit itself to returning every cent today?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know where the hon. member has been for the last several months, but the fact is that the party has been very clear and the government has been very clear. If partisan funds were received inappropriately, they will be returned to the Canadian taxpayer, but that cannot be done until we have all the facts. What the hon. member is referring to are allegations. They are not facts.

In fact, the reason we have Justice Gomery is for him to apply his considerable abilities to sifting through the facts, to analyzing the facts and to submitting to Canadians and to ourselves a report that will provide Canadians with the truth they deserve.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a Liberal supporter admitted publicly that his company, Groupaction, gave thousands of dollars of sponsorship money, tax dollars, to separatists in Quebec. The Prime Minister yesterday agreed that both the Liberals and the separatists received tax dollars.

Canadians want to know which party will this government proceed against first to recover the tax dollars, the Liberals or the separatists?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the government has been clear. If there were people who were participating in malfeasance, those guilty parties will be subject to the full extent of Canadian law and, as such, those people will be forced to repay funds. That is a position that has been very clear: that regardless of partisan stripe any malfeasance will be rooted out and dealt with very, very strongly.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we had a disgraceful display of government members applauding reports that Canadian tax dollars went to separatists. It is like giving ammunition to the enemy. So is it not true that the biggest allies to Quebec separatists are the federal Liberals and their twisted sponsorship program?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, once again, we are getting to the bottom of this because we are not afraid of the truth and Canadians deserve the truth, but let us talk about unity for a moment, because--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

Order, please. I cannot hear the minister, and the member for Simcoe--Grey who asked the question will not be able to hear a word. We need to have some order while the minister responds. I know the House is boisterous today, but we have to be able to hear the minister and so does the member for Simcoe--Grey who asked this important question and wants the important answer that she is about to receive.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the hon. member is discussing allegations. She will not wait for the facts. I do not know what she has against getting to the truth. We are not afraid of getting to the truth.

When we are talking about national unity, let us never forget that when federalists were up against the wall working hard to keep the country together in a pre-1995 environment in the province of Quebec just before the referendum, the leader of the Conservative Party gave a speech saying he did not care how many national capitals Canada ended up with. We have a separatist party that wants to tear the country apart and a Conservative Party that does not care.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Minister of Transport and Prime Minister's lieutenant for Quebec has tried to distance himself from the sponsorship scandal by stating, “These people had no official position in the Liberal Party of Canada”.

How could the minister make such a statement when we know that those soliciting donations on behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada were Benoît Corbeil, Joe Morselli and Jacques Corriveau, all senior officials with the party's Quebec wing?

[Jean Lapierre, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, it is quite simple. I was referring to elected positions within the party, and none of the individuals named held an elected position in this party.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Transport is not being very subtle in trying to place the blame on a so-called parallel group.

Can the minister deny that the parallel group to which he is referring did not consist of anonymous actors, as he would have us believe, but rather very public Liberal Party members who were in the highest echelons of that party?

[Jean Lapierre, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to people who are all members of a party now accused of having collected $100,000 illegally, as is alleged, we have nothing to learn from Parti Québécois supporters in the Bloc.