House of Commons Hansard #99 of the 38th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was budget.
An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain PaymentsGovernment Orders
Liberal
Don Boudria Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I would simply like to say thank you, given the time. As an ardent advocate of parliamentary procedure, I think it is time move on to members' statements. To my colleague I just want to say thank you very, very much.
An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain PaymentsGovernment Orders
West Nova Nova Scotia
Liberal
Robert Thibault LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health
Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate the member on such an excellent speech and, above all, on such a wonderful career. Canadians owe him a great deal for the services he has rendered in Canada and abroad. No one owes more to this member than francophones outside Quebec. He has always fought to ensure respect for the rights of linguistic duality in this country. He led major battles in health care in his part of the country and in education in our part of the country. He was always there to support Canada's francophones, and we thank him for it.
An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain PaymentsGovernment Orders
Liberal
Don Boudria Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Once again, thank you for such praise, which I do not deserve, but which I appreciate. Thank you.
Peter Adams Liberal Peterborough, ON
Madam Speaker, in some communities the hospice is a place. In Peterborough it is more than that. It is a group of people who work to enhance the comfort, dignity and quality of life of individuals and families living with or affected by a life-threatening illness or grief.
In the 15 years or so of its existence, Hospice Peterborough has trained over 800 people, of whom 300 ended up volunteering with the hospice. In a very real sense, these volunteers are Hospice Peterborough. I would suggest to members that palliative care volunteers are a very special group of volunteers. These are people who work with the dying and the bereaved in their own homes. As someone has said, “They care enough to connect, laugh and cry...to sit up all night, to gently hold a hand, to share their time and their essence”.
Their contributions to health care are tremendous but the humanity they bring to death and dying is worth even more.
I thank Hospice Peterborough.
Rick Casson Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Mr. Speaker, Canadians will be going to the polls very soon to pass judgment on the Liberal government.
Leading up to this judgment day, we are witness to the spectacle of the Prime Minister travelling across Canada making deathbed promises at the rate of a billion dollars a day; promises made without the proper programs in place to administer these funds. Now is that not exactly how the ad scam was operated?
Canadians will reject this obvious panic stricken display of Liberals trying to buy votes to cover up the fact they used dirty money to buy votes in the first place. This act of desperation clarifies the fact that the government is corrupt and is ruining the finances of our great country.
The question now becomes: Who is best equipped to clean up the mess made by these Liberals?
Having Liberals throwing buckets of hard-earned taxpayer dollars on a fire started with stolen taxpayer dollars is not the answer. Arsonists do not make great firefighters.
The clear choice to put this fire out and clean up this mess is the Conservative Party of Canada.
Lloyd St. Amand Liberal Brant, ON
Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a member of my riding of Brant who recently passed away.
Mr. Doug Wilson died on May 5 shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Mr. Wilson was the city solicitor for the City of Brantford for many years and guided city council and staff in Brantford through many political and bureaucratic projects.
He has been described as a man who had incredible integrity, was soft spoken and his word was worth gold. He was an avid sportsman and played many sports with a high degree of proficiency. He was a modern day renaissance man and the theatre was a large part of his life with his wife, Colette. He was also fond of jazz and avidly read works of literature.
Doug Wilson was a conscientious professional, a very fine husband and a devoted father. Many individuals had the privilege of calling him a friend. He will be greatly missed.
Louise Thibault Bloc Rimouski—Témiscouata, QC
Madam Speaker, today I want to celebrate the fantastic season our major junior hockey team, the Rimouski Oceanic, has just had.
Having won the regular season championship and the playoffs, the team broke the record of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League for the longest string of consecutive victories, with 35.
We must praise the hard work and efforts of the organization as a whole, and the players in particular, as well as the remarkable performance of Sidney Crosby, the leading scorer throughout the regular season and the playoffs, the best junior player in the country and best junior prospect for the NHL draft.
Congratulations to the Oceanic on winning the President's Cup and good luck at the Memorial Cup Tournament.
Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON
Madam Speaker, recently it was announced that up to 10 Ontario government buildings, including the Ontario legislature, will by 2007 be cooled using deep lake water cooling technology.
I was pleased to be instrumental in promoting deep lake water cooling when I served as a member of Toronto city council.
One of the partners in this project, Dennis Fotinos, noted that this latest announcement will be a “catalyst that has opened up a huge opportunity”.
Indeed, along with fellow deep lake water cooling proponents like Michael Nobrega, another partner in this project, Enwave has demonstrated the enormous advantage in cooling buildings with this technology.
Currently, buildings like the Air Canada Centre, the Toronto-Dominion Centre, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre South and the Steam Whistle Brewery use deep lake water cooling.
It is initiatives like these that we must encourage to meet the Kyoto protocol. I offer my congratulations to all those involved in the deep lake water cooling project.
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Madam Speaker, last week we saw the premier of Saskatchewan single-handedly destroy any chance of getting an immediate equalization deal for our province. Throughout the week he gave a seminar on how not to succeed in Ottawa.
Monday he made promises he could not possibly keep when he showed up declaring he was here to get a new deal. He said that he was not going home until he got one. He even brought extra socks.
Tuesday he displayed his political ineptness when he attacked his only allies. The Conservative MPs from Saskatchewan have made equalization an issue in Ottawa. We need to work together.
Wednesday he disappeared, perhaps to wash his socks.
Thursday he panicked. Knowing that he could not get an equalization deal, he started dealing for second best.
Friday he gave up and headed home.
Saturday he demonstrated the results of poor negotiating when he bravely tried to convince our province that pennies are the same as dollars.
Our province has been betrayed. This federal Liberal finance minister has no intention of giving Saskatchewan a fair equalization deal. It is time the premier acknowledged that.
Mark Holland Liberal Ajax—Pickering, ON
Madam Speaker, I had the opportunity over the course of the weekend to talk with constituents and to knock on doors. I can say that those constituents were very disappointed in what they saw in Parliament last week, with Parliament being paralyzed.
I can say that I too have been very disappointed with the way things have operated in this House over the last number of months, starting with the accusation leveled against the member for York West. We had over two months of this House being captivated with that, only to find out it was completely false.
For me, last week was a real low when the public accounts committee, which had two days set aside to hear witnesses from across the country talk about national security and a passport action plan, was boycotted. Those witnesses came from across Canada to sit down in a half empty committee room that did not have quorum.
I want this House to return to a place to which we are proud to bring students, in which we are proud to work and a place where we debate ideas and issues, not personalities. It is time for us to get to work.
Odina Desrochers Bloc Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister is definitely clinging to power. After being crowned leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, 18 months ago, he stated that his government would tackle the democratic deficit.
Six months later, he broke his word. Through partisan tactics, he sabotaged the work of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, which had been mandated to shed light on the sponsorship scandal, despite the fact it had been largely exposed by the Auditor General.
One year later, scared by revelations at the Gomery commission, the same individual did everything he could to back out. He even went on television to try and demonstrate that his government was still able to manage the affairs of the state. But in his arrogant way, he refuses to recognize that he has lost the legitimacy to govern.
To save face, he has no choice but to accept the verdict of parliamentarians and call an election immediately.
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate everyone who was involved in the annual House of Commons hockey tournament for the United Way, an event which took place recently here in Ottawa.
This year's tournament featured 10 teams, comprised mainly of employees of the House of Commons and the Senate. In all, over 100 players took part in the event.
The final game saw the team of Liberal staffers, known as The Herd, take on Rock's Boys, a team made up of House of Commons security constables.
Fans were treated to a see-saw battle from start to finish. The game featured plenty of great scoring chances, including a penalty shot in regulation time. After three periods the teams were tied at three goals apiece. A shootout was then held to determine the winner. In the end, thanks to some stellar goaltending, The Herd came out on top by a score of 4 to 3.
Of course, the real winner of this year's tournament was the United Way which will benefit immensely from the nearly $2,500 that was raised over the course of the event.
I congratulate once again the players, the organizers and the fans for contributing their time and energy to a great cause.
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Mr. Speaker, my fellow Canadians, this is a wake-up call. The united landowners of rural Ontario have arrived on Parliament Hill to demonstrate against the latest attack on Canada's democracy.
The federal Liberals hold Parliament and the people in contempt. They have used deception to bankrupt Canadian farmers and have stolen their hard-earned money to bestow illegal privileges on their friends and cronies.
Rural Ontario LandownersStatements By Members
The Speaker
The member knows, and I have said it on occasions before, that referring to government as stealing money is unparliamentary. She will want to refrain from this.
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Mr. Speaker, three parliamentary defeats by a majority of the people's elected representatives in the House of Commons has deprived this administration of its moral and parliamentary authority to govern.
The united rural landowners of Canada demand: the inclusion of property rights in Canada's Constitution; protection from subsidized foreign commodities destroying our farm incomes; a stop to the theft of property through deceptive and false environmental regulations; an open border for our cattle; the protection of quota value from arbitrary government policy; an end to government attacks on the rural economy; the reduction of excessive and intrusive legislation and regulations; the removal of all corrupt federal politicians; and the dissolution of this dictatorial Parliament. Power to the people.
Françoise Boivin Liberal Gatineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, what a pleasure to see the Bloc-Conservative alliance back in the House after the holiday it gave itself last week at taxpayers' expense.
While Liberal and NDP MPs were at work last week, hearing witnesses in committee or attending to the affairs of the nation, the members of the Bloc-Conservative alliance were not in the House.
On this side of the House, working means acting in the interest of Canadians. This cannot be said of the Bloc or the Conservatives. They came back “to work” in order to destroy the Atlantic accord, to destroy the national child care system, to destroy the agreement on health care, to destroy the new deal for cities and communities, to name only a few.
As regards the Bloc, which claims to be working in the interest of Quebeckers, its leader is in such a hurry to advance the cause of separatism that he is prepared to kill every initiative he claims to defend: the Kyoto protocol, equalization, social transfers for health and regional economic development.
Is that what work means to the Bloc?
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, this week's historic budget vote is being viewed too often as simply a decision on the life or death of the government. It is so much more than that. The budget represents Parliament's best opportunity to help people.
In my hometown of Hamilton, one report found over 14,000 tenant households spending more than half of their income on rent. This budget will help those tenants.
The 28,000 students at McMaster University and 10,000 students at Mohawk College are facing possible tuition increases this fall. The budget will help those students.
Hamiltonians were faced with some of the worst air quality levels in Ontario last year. The budget will help clean our air.
We are not voting on just the life or death of a government, but on the quality of life of our seniors and our students, our sick and our poor. It is about the life or death of our vibrant cities and our green spaces.
I will not vote for the government but I will vote for the NDP improved budget and everything it means for the people of Hamilton Centre.
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Speaker, once again we learn of further evidence from the Gomery inquiry that continues to link senior levels of the Liberal Party to the sponsorship scandal. We hear tales of cash-stuffed envelopes and briefcases and sworn evidence showing that the Liberals have run election campaigns on dirty money.
It has now been revealed by the director general of the party's Quebec wing that in May 2001 his predecessor was linked with the former public works minister and the chief Liberal organizer from Quebec. In addition to this evidence, it has further been alleged that a close friend of the former prime minister acknowledged at the time that he set up a lucrative kickback system that moved money illicitly from the ad agencies to the Liberal Party.
This damning testimony linking Liberal Party officials to illicit cash proves further that the Liberal Party was using taxpayer dollars as if they were their own.
This is much more than a story of rogue Liberals and greedy ad men. It is a story of admissions from senior Liberals that show the party is no longer fit for public office.
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Mirabel, QC
Mr. Speaker, underlying every democracy is the principle whereby the people elect representatives and give them the power to govern.
This power is not ours. It is lent to us. We must take care of it, never abuse it and never ever use it as our own.
I accuse the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party of Canada of using public money to stay in power in 1997, 2000 and 2004 and of using it still, day after day, to remain in power.
I remind the Liberals that this power is only lent to them by the people. It is not theirs. It is now time for the Prime Minister and all the Liberal MPs to stop hanging on to power and let the people judge for themselves.
Helena Guergis Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister recently showed his contempt for Parliament and Canadians by addressing the nation in a manner that is usually reserved for national emergencies. When the Liberals confuse party corruption with a national emergency, it is clear they are unfit to govern.
The Prime Minister is desperate and will do everything he can to avoid the consequences of his Liberal corruption and hang on to power. He has misled Canadians: Justice Gomery cannot even bring charges against the Liberals.
The Prime Minister has spent $4.6 billion buying votes and is now threatening Canadians, telling them to vote for the Liberals or else they will not get their money.
Shame on the Prime Minister. He refused to resign after his government was defeated in the House of Commons. The Liberals can no longer avoid Canadian voters. The Liberals are corrupt and they are ruining the country's finances.
It is time for accountability and it is time to stand up for Canada.
Wajid Khan Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Mr. Speaker, how about a little clarity from the Conservative Party?
This weekend the Conservatives stated that they will support the outcome of the budget vote this Thursday, which is a confidence vote, but last Friday, the Leader of the Opposition tabled a non-confidence motion that the Conservatives can use at their convenience. This does not make the Conservative position clear.
Similarly, last September the Leader of the Opposition joined the Bloc and the NDP in calling for a narrow definition of confidence. Then the Leader of the Opposition flip-flopped on the definition by arguing that procedural motions should also constitute confidence bills.
The Leader of the Opposition has vowed to defeat the budget while claiming that our commitments to national child care, the Atlantic accord and cities and communities are worth supporting.
All the more confusing is that he is on record as criticizing Atlantic Canadians as defeatists, opposing the new deal and opposing the national child care program. Where the Conservative Party really stands on these issues, only the Leader of the Opposition knows.
Peter MacKay Conservative Central Nova, NS
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister wants to re-establish courtesy and respect in the House of Commons. Should he give some thought to re-establishing that courtesy by respecting the will of the House? He lost by seven votes yet the government continues to sit, because he refuses to respect the democratic will of the House of Commons.
What guarantee do the people of Canada have that the Prime Minister will respect votes in the House in future?
Anne McLellan LiberalDeputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Mr. Speaker, first of all, the Prime Minister made a very important statement this morning in Halifax in relation to the importance of civility returning to the House. I hope, in spite of what I have just heard, that on behalf of Canadians we are all committed to the return of civility and decorum in the House.
Let me, in response to the hon. member's question, make it absolutely clear that the Prime Minister will respect the outcome of the vote held on Thursday.
Peter MacKay Conservative Central Nova, NS
Since he would not respect the others, Mr. Speaker.
We have another day and another photo op for the Prime Minister in a day care centre. Meanwhile, a more sinister but realistic picture of the Liberal Party and its leader continues to emerge from the daily testimony at the Gomery inquiry, with daily testimony of envelopes or suitcases of cash paid to Liberal workers and evidence of a parallel secret Liberal fundraising network. Attempts to stem the flow of dirty money were met with threats. Some feared for their lives and went to the RCMP.
During that whole time, the Prime Minister, as finance minister, was actively campaigning to replace his mentor, Jean Chrétien. Does he really think Canadians believe him when he says he saw no evil, heard no evil and did no evil?
Scott Brison LiberalMinister of Public Works and Government Services
First of all, Mr. Speaker, these allegations are disturbing and we take them very seriously, but the fact is that they are allegations. They are not proven facts. We need Justice Gomery to complete his work.
Let us be clear. We want to ensure that anyone who is found guilty of malfeasance, of harnessing the unity crisis to achieve inappropriate financial gain, ought to face the full extent of the law. The fact is, Canadians know that the Prime Minister, our leader, who actually established the Gomery commission and supports Gomery, is exactly the best leader to get to the bottom of this issue.
That member is the last person who should be talking about campaigning for his leader's job.