Debates of April 7th, 2005

Sponsorship Program

[Benoît Sauvageau, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in 1997, Jean Brault agreed to pay $50,000 in cash to the Liberal Party of Canada. In 2001, he agreed to another $50,000. He even earned the thanks of Benoit Corbeil, then on the executive of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada.

When will the Prime Minister require the Liberal Party of Canada to pay back all the dirty money obtained by the Liberals?

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

Mr. Speaker, one would think that with allegations that the Parti Québécois received funds inappropriately the Bloc would finally understand the importance of waiting for Justice Gomery to complete his work so that we could have all the facts instead of acting on individual testimony. Because these are allegations; these are not facts. Canadians and Quebeckers will not have the benefit of those facts until Justice Gomery completes all his work.

I can tell the member that both the government and the party will be responding very strongly to those recommendations from Justice Gomery.

[Benoît Sauvageau, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

A nice attempt at diversion, Mr. Speaker.

In addition to the cash payments, there were the phony invoices. For example, again according to the testimony given by Jean Brault, Jacques Corriveau, now well know as a Liberal bagman, allegedly billed more than half a million dollars to Groupaction on phony invoices. More dirty money.

When will the Prime Minister be asking the Liberal Party of Canada to reimburse all of the dirty money the Liberals obtained?

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

Mr. Speaker, these are allegations, not facts. We need to wait for Justice Gomery's report to get the facts.

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that we are trying to determine is the degree to which contracts were tied to donations back to the Liberal Party. A report that has been moved today says that Benoît Corbeil, the executive director of the party's Quebec wing, once asked for a $400,000 donation and promised that he would get him a $3 million sponsorship contract; this is Jean Brault. The commission Mr. Brault would earn on that contract was to compensate for the donation.

Is the executive director of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party, Mr. Corbeil, one of these rogue groups of parallel Liberals?

[The Speaker]

Order, please. I am sorry. I do not think that question has to do with the administrative responsibility of the government. It does not appear to deal with the recovery of government funding. The hon. member may have a supplementary that is in order, but I do not believe this one is.

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this is not just about dirty money going to the Liberal Party or to the Parti Québécois and it is not just about enriching Liberal friends.

When will the government admit that the party that claimed it wanted to address the democratic deficit was using stolen money to undermine democracy in two successive elections?

[The Speaker]

Once again, I think the hon. member for Medicine Hat knows that questions about moneys used by parties in election campaigns are not the administrative responsibility of the government.

The hon. member for Red Deer.

Government Appointments

[Bob Mills, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said he would not tolerate patronage, promotions and appointments based on who one knows in the PMO. He said to let committees review appointments. The environment committee found Mr. Murray unqualified for that patronage job. Parliament yesterday voted 143 to 108 to remove him.

Will the Prime Minister keep his word and remove Glen Murray from his appointment?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I thought that today the Conservative Party members would stand up and say they were sorry they agreed to that partisan vote yesterday and would apologize to Mr. Murray, who will deliver a great job in order to be sure that this round table will handle important issues for the environment and the economy of this country.

[Bob Mills, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment is quoted as saying the House vote to remove Mr. Murray “was really irrelevant”.

That is exactly what the Liberals think about the House. That is exactly the true colour of these Liberals. Is it not true the parliamentary secretary's words really reflect what the Prime Minister thinks: that he never had any intention of fixing the democratic deficit?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the sole thing the Conservatives had against Mr. Murray is that at the last election he chose to run for the Liberal Party instead of the Conservative Party when they requested him to run with them, but this being said, it has nothing to do with the competence of Mr. Murray and his capacity to serve this country with honour and dignity.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. I am concerned about the amount of noise that seems to build up in the course of an answer, to the point where I cannot hear the answer. If it persists I will just extend the time and members will not like it. I have been enforcing time limits despite noise but when I cannot hear--

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Shall I repeat it?

[The Speaker]

I think I heard enough of it, and it appeared to have created a sensation in the House so perhaps today we will not repeat it, but on another day, if there is another question, I am sure the minister will want to be a little repetitious.

The hon. member for Thornhill. We will have some order, please.

International Cooperation

[Susan Kadis, Liberal, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, nearly half a million women die during pregnancy and childbirth and 11 million children die before their fifth birthday. Most of these deaths take place in developing countries. Could the Minister of International Cooperation explain what Canada is doing to reduce the number of deaths among women and young children in developing countries?

[Aileen Carroll, Liberal, Minister of International Cooperation]

Mr. Speaker, there is no good reason in the 21st century why so many women and children are dying needlessly.

On this World Health Day, I want to send a more appropriate message: make every mother and child count.

That is why I have today announced almost $90 million in new funding for maternal and child health programs.

Sponsorship Program

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, all this House and all the Canadian people ask of this Liberal government is one ounce of humility, one ounce of collective responsibility, one ounce of realizing that what is at stake here is not just the Liberal Party but the face of federalism in Quebec and across the country.

For the sake of Canada, for the sake of federalism and for the sake of integrity in Canadian politics, will someone get up and accept the collective responsibility for what has gone on and promise to repay the money, put it aside and put it somewhere where we can get access to it when we know what finally happened?

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

Mr. Speaker, there is only one leader in this House who has actually done exactly that, who has taken responsibility, and that is the Prime Minister of Canada, our Prime Minister, who appointed Justice Gomery and who continues to support Justice Gomery.

We as a government support Justice Gomery because we want the truth. The NDP, the Bloc and the Alliance Conservatives are playing politics with this issue because they do not want the truth. Canadians deserve the truth. The Prime Minister stands with Canadians and with Justice Gomery because we look forward to his report.

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I was hoping to get something from the Deputy Prime Minister instead of the clown prince of spin over there. What we want from the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Liberals is one simple act of contrition.

This is the same government that hired an army of lawyers to hold the churches responsible collectively for everything that was done in their name. Yet, as far as they are concerned, it is only individual Liberals who can commit a wrong.

It is not the Bloc that is tarnishing federalism in Canada. It is the Liberal Party. It is about time it took credit for it.

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

Mr. Speaker, as has been said in this House many times before, it was this Prime Minister and this government that created the Gomery commission.

It is this Prime Minister and this government that wants Gomery to get on with his job. Let us ensure that the testimony that is heard is in the public domain. Let us ensure that Mr. Justice Gomery gets the chance to issue his report. Nobody more than this Prime Minister and this government wants to ensure all Canadians know what happened.

Air-India

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on Monday the Deputy Prime Minister rejected our call for a public inquiry into the Air-India fiasco.

This smokescreen of an advisor is just more stalling. Why can she not make up her own mind? Has she caught a bad case of the dithers from the Prime Minister?

Air-India was the largest terrorist attack in Canadian history. Yet, no one has been brought to justice. Nothing less than a full public inquiry is acceptable. Why is the minister dithering on this critical issue?

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

Mr. Speaker, on serious matters such as this, I would appreciate it if members of the opposition who ask questions would actually get their facts straight. In fact, Mr. Reyat has been convicted in relation to the Air-India events.

Having said that, nobody is dithering over here. We have been absolutely clear. I have offered to meet with the families. My first meeting with the families will take place on Tuesday of next week. Mr. Judd, the head of CSIS, Commissioner Zaccardelli, the head of the RCMP, will come with me. We want to sit down and talk with the families. We want to hear from them the questions that they believe are unanswered. Then we will move forward.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that our leader has meet with the families. Everyone else who has wanted to has met with the families. Perhaps the minister should explain why she has not at this point.

The minister is simply not taking this issue seriously. Twenty years later, Canadians have no idea what went wrong and they have no assurance that they will not be the next victims of this government's dithering on a matter of national security.

If the advisor says no, will she take his advice? Regardless of the advisor's opinion, a full judicial inquiry is the only acceptable option. Will the Deputy Prime Minister commit to one immediately?

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

Mr. Speaker, the absolutely outrageous irresponsibility of that hon. member suggesting to all Canadians that this government does not take the collective security and safety of Canadians seriously is unbelievable.

That this member would suggest to Canadians that, since that horrible day in June 1985, this government along with allies around the world have not spent billions of dollars globally to learn from disasters such as Air-India and to ensure we are--