Debates of April 7th, 2005

Air-India

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Portage—Lisgar.

Sponsorship Program

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, during his six days of testimony before the Gomery commission, Jean Brault portrayed his firm, Groupaction, as a virtual financial arm of the Liberal Party's Quebec branch. He spoke about hushed up payments being made to the Liberals in unmarked envelopes, bags of money changing hands.

Let us understand the context. The Prime Minister was the number two man in the country at that time for the Liberal Party. He was the senior minister for Quebec.

Does anyone actually believe he knew nothing about this? Does the government plan to continue to defend the Prime Minister on the basis of his incompetence?

[The Speaker]

I am not sure there was a question there, but the hon. Minister of Public Works may wish to answer.

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

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear, when we as a government acted to recover some $41 million from 19 firms and agencies, the Conservative Party attacked those actions.

When we stood up for justice, and stand up for justice by supporting Justice Gomery, the Conservative Party attacks Justice Gomery and tries to kneecap him so that he does not submit a report.

We will continue to stand up for the taxpayer and we will continue to support justice. I do not care what the Conservative Party believes in these days, but I can tell the House that we believe in getting to the bottom of this issue and we also believe in supporting--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Portage--Lisgar.

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, when the Liberals try to wrap themselves in the flag, they soil it with their presence inside it. This is outrageous. The Liberals have put this country at risk with their ridiculous crazy schemes.

Will the government commit to recovering every single cent of the money, plus interest, to the wall on this issue?

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

Mr. Speaker, when the government launched action, when I launched action as a minister of the government to recover $41 million from 19 firms and individuals, the leader of the Conservative Party attacked us as a government for taking that action. Just because his leader is out of the country does not give him the licence to freelance.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in order to pay at least $2.2 million of dirty money to the Liberal Party, Jean Brault says that no stone was left unturned, from political contributions, to cash, fake invoices, phony professional fees, bill payments on behalf of the Liberal Party and the hiring of individuals who never actually worked for Groupaction.

Now that we know what methods were used and how much money was involved in the Groupaction case alone, will the Prime Minister at least order the Liberal Party to contribute $2.2 million to the dirty money trust fund?

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

Mr. Speaker, once again, the leader of the Bloc Québécois is talking about allegations, the same types of allegations that say that the Parti Québécois in Quebec similarly received funds inappropriately.

Anyone involved in this type of malfeasance, regardless of political stripe, will be subject to the full extent of Canadian law. Until we have the report, we can only deal with allegations. I would think now that there are fingers being pointed at the Parti Québécois that the hon. member would understand that principle.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let me say to the minister what his mother probably often said to him when he was not being sensible, “Nonsense”.

In 1998, at the request of a Liberal Party official, Groupaction paid a $24,000 invoice for the production of a video by a close relation of Gagliano for the Liberal Party of Canada.

When will the government ask the Liberal Party to pay back the dirty money obtained by the Liberals through the sponsorships?

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

Mr. Speaker, the government has been clear and the party has been clear. If any funds were received inappropriately, they will be returned to the Canadian taxpayers.

The question is this. Why has the Parti Québecois not been similarly forthright and committed to doing exactly the same thing?

Let us be clear. We are committed to ensuring that justice is meted out on anybody who performed any form of malfeasance against the Canadian taxpayer. We will get to the bottom of this issue.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Jean Brault, the former head of Groupaction Marketing, has testified that the scheme to funnel taxpayers' dollars to the Liberal Party in the 1997 and 2000 federal election campaigns continued until as recently as 2002. He said, “If it wasn't for our contributions to the party, we never would have had such a big piece of the sponsorship pie”.

Will the government now finally admit that this was just a systematic scheme to take taxpayers' money from them and get it back to the Liberal Party?

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

Mr. Speaker, once again, these are allegations. They are not facts. Repeating them over and over and over again does not transform them into facts. The only way we can get facts is if we allow Justice Gomery to analyze all the testimony and allow him to provide us with his report.

That is why we have an independent judicial commission in order to get to the bottom of this. I would urge the hon. member and all members of the House to respect Justice Gomery's work and to let him complete that report, so that Canadians can have the truth.

Fisheries

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Dewdney—Alouette, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there is more bad news for British Columbia's Fraser River. Last season more than a million sockeye salmon went missing and on Monday it was named B.C.'s most endangered river. The fisheries committee's unanimous report and the Williams report that was just released all conclude that inadequate enforcements and DFO mismanagement are serious problems.

With the fishing season just weeks away, can the minister assure this House that he will accept the recommendations and properly enforce the Fisheries Act and regulations?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, conservation of salmon is very important and this government takes it very seriously. In recent months I launched the post-season review. We have had the report from the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. I am looking forward to looking at both reports. We will take both into consideration as we move toward reform of the salmon fishery.

Health

[Françoise Boivin, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on this World Health Day, during which the World Health Organization wants to raise awareness about this important issue, I want to know how this government intends to respond since it seems to share the Canadian public's concerns about health.

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the health care accord signed in September is a testament to how important health is to the Prime Minister and this government.

We have arranged to have more than $41 billion of new money injected into our health care system in order to make it more efficient and to ensure its sustainability.

We have made sure that concrete targets are set for addressing the wait time problem. We have set out to close the Romanow gap. We are now working on a national drug strategy.

This government has injected the most money ever invested in the history of our country—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Carleton—Mississippi Mills.

National Defence

[Gordon O'Connor, Conservative, Carleton—Lanark, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there must be a byelection coming in Labrador because the Minister of National Defence is finally showing some interest in Goose Bay.

In press releases the minister says he is actively promoting flying training with NATO countries. I must ask, where was his government when the Dutch pulled out, and where is it now that the British have pulled out? The answer is nowhere.

Will the minister explain why training and employment under Liberal management continues to decline at Goose Bay?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I can tell the hon. member where the government has been in respect to the Dutch and the British, and every other foreign government that has been training at Goose Bay. The Prime Minister himself intervened when we were at NATO. I have intervened with every foreign defence minister in respect of this file. Personally, we have taken this to their air forces.

We expect to convince many to come back to Goose Bay. We have changed, with discussions with the Goose Bay residents themselves, the way in which we charge fees to those who come to Goose Bay. We are working with the community. We are working with the foreign countries who come here to train. We will continue to support Goose Bay, not just play politics the way the opposition is doing.

Business of the House

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, with the House honouring the Pope's memory tomorrow by suspending the sitting out of respect for his passing, we are interested in knowing from the government what business is planned for the week of April 11 to 15.

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

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon we will continue debate on the opposition day motion. As members know, there will be no sitting tomorrow.

On Monday the House will hold the debate on our procedures required by Standing Order 51. Mr. Speaker, I ask you to appoint the order of the day to permit that debate. If it is completed, we will return to Bill C-23 and Bill C-22, the human resources and social development legislation.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we shall consider Bill C-43, the budget bill.

Thursday will be an allotted day. At the end of the day on Thursday we shall return to consideration of the seventh report of the Standing Committee on Health.

On Tuesday evening there will be a take note debate. Therefore, I move:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 53.1, on April 12, 2005 a take note debate shall take place on the subject of the RCMP and law enforcement in Canada.

[The Speaker]

Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

(Motion agreed to)

The House resumed consideration of the motion.