House of Commons Hansard #52 of the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was companies.
Jean Lapierre Liberal Outremont, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to know whether the President of the Treasury Board is telling us that, for him, integrity and transparency are only matters of concern when they are in the newspaper. The illegal acts, however, occurred six months ago. Was he waiting to see something in the newspaper before taking action?
John Baird ConservativePresident of the Treasury Board
Mr. Speaker, I meant that, as soon as this came to my attention, I called Ms. Stoddart and asked her to study the case. She is doing that now and I have a lot of respect for her office. She is going to look into this.
I want to know about the moment the member discovered that the member for Eglinton--Lawrence was recruiting campaign donations for $5,000 from 10-year-olds. What did the member opposite do when that happened?
Vivian Barbot Bloc Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, the summit of la Francophonie will be held over the next few days in Bucharest, Romania, but the convention on cultural diversity has still not been ratified by all francophone countries.
Does the Government of Canada have an action plan, and does it plan to intensify its efforts to have the convention on cultural diversity officially ratified during the summit?
Cultural DiversityOral Questions
September 25th, 2006 / 2:30 p.m.
Beauport—Limoilou Québec
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages
Mr. Speaker, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages, I can say that we are working hard to ensure that our country's linguistic duality is recognized around the world.
Vivian Barbot Bloc Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, once again, we have received a response that has nothing to do with the question, but I am getting used to it.
Last spring, the governments of Canada and Quebec signed an agreement to give Quebec a place in UNESCO. Five months have since passed, and without an administrative agreement, it seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Can the government tell the House if it plans to use the summit of la Francophonie to finalize matters by signing an administrative agreement with Quebec?
Peter MacKay ConservativeMinister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question. It is clear that we have a good relationship with the Government of Quebec. With respect to this initiative, everyone is waiting for a response from the Government of Quebec. This is another example of good cooperation between the federal government and the Government of Quebec.
Bernard Bigras Bloc Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
Mr. Speaker, last spring the Conservative government cancelled the EnerGuide program and the one tonne challenge citing their inefficiency. Evaluations of these two programs confirmed their success and were brought to the attention of the Minister of the Environment well before the programs were scrapped.
How can the minister justify cancelling these two programs when internal reports show that they have proven to be effective?
Gary Lunn ConservativeMinister of Natural Resources
Mr. Speaker, I can tell the House that the one tonne challenge program was a wet page. It was a series of commercials that lacked focus and direction. It did not get results.
This government is evaluating all of the programs to ensure that the taxpayers' dollars are taken first and foremost, that they deliver and that they get results.
Bernard Bigras Bloc Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
Mr. Speaker, the EnerGuide program was liked not only by public servants but also by partners.
This decision is symptomatic of the ideological approach of the Conservatives who, against all logic, trash effective programs.
Will the Minister of the Environment tell us if her made in Canada plan will be in keeping with the Conservatives anti-Kyoto ideology or will it respect the motion adopted by the House on May 16 requesting that all Kyoto objectives be met?
Gary Lunn ConservativeMinister of Natural Resources
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to tell the House that I consult with my officials on a regular basis.
We talked about the EnerGuide program. In that program virtually 50¢ of every single dollar either went to inspections or administration.
That is not the direction in which this government wants to go. We want to ensure that we are getting real results and we are delivering programs that will actually have an impact on the environment, that are good for Canadians and have an impact on their health.
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister must answer to Canadians for his own behaviour when it comes to Canada's election laws. The Prime Minister has personally violated the Canada Elections Act by donating more than the $5,100 limit an individual can donate to a political party.
How does the Prime Minister expect Canadians to believe that he will abide by the $1,000 limit in his own accountability act when he cannot even respect the existing laws?
John Baird ConservativePresident of the Treasury Board
Mr. Speaker, the reality is those of us on this side of the House follow all the laws that we are required to and we ensure that we follow them diligently.
There is a difference with respect to the interpretation of these laws. If we get another opinion from the one that has been given not only to this party but to other parties, all of the laws in this country will be respected.
If we could only expect the same from the Liberal Party, to follow all the laws in Canada's elections in the past, that would be a good thing for Canada.
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately it is not only the Prime Minister who gave an illegal donation to the Conservative Party. There are at least 2,900 delegates with fees totalling at least $1.7 million. There is more. The party's executive director says that Conservatives have been accepting off-book donations for years. This is illegal money that the party has no right to spend and it must be returned to the donors.
When will the Prime Minister agree to pay back the $1.7 million in illegal donations?
John Baird ConservativePresident of the Treasury Board
Mr. Speaker, I certainly do not accept the premise of the question. Let us be very clear what the member is looking to happen.
What the Liberal Party says is that the big fat cheque it gets annually from taxpayers is not enough, that the big refund to candidates at the local riding level is not enough. The Liberals are asking the taxpayers to subsidize the Liberal leadership convention with full tax credited receipts. The cost to taxpayers would be more than $1.67 million.
That is so much money, it is even more than the million dollars the Liberals stole from the taxpayers when they were in government and were forced to return to taxpayers by the Gomery report. Shame.
Political FinancingOral Questions
Mark Holland Liberal Ajax—Pickering, ON
Mr. Speaker, the minister should be less concerned about to whom he is going to be asking questions when he is in opposition and more concerned about actually answering questions and demonstrating some accountability.
Not only did the Prime Minister violate the Canada Elections Act by exceeding donation limits, but now it appears that a Conservative MP may have used a donation scam to make illegal contributions as well.
Today we learned that the Conservative member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington's hidden contributions breached the 2005 limit. All in all, there are $1.7 million in similar hidden illegal donations the Conservatives tried to slip past Elections Canada.
In the interests of ensuring the integrity of the Canada Elections Act, when will the Prime Minister release the names involved and pay back the $1.7 million?
John Baird ConservativePresident of the Treasury Board
Mr. Speaker, let us look at the facts. Another political party was also given the same advice and counsel as this party was with respect to financial donations to political parties. Another political party was told that the costs for convention fees were not required to be counted as donations because the cost of the convention was $600 and that was the cost that was paid.
What the Liberal Party wants taxpayers to do, hard-working middle class families in Ajax and Pickering, is to dig into their pockets and to subsidize their own convention by $1.6 million in subsidies, something that those of us on this side--
Political FinancingOral Questions
Mark Holland Liberal Ajax—Pickering, ON
Mr. Speaker, let us look at the facts. The Prime Minister muzzled the Commissioner of the RCMP. His Parliamentary Secretary spent last week misleading Parliament and Canadians. The Prime Minister and a Conservative MP violated election laws. The minister does not even know what the existing law is and their party is refusing to release basic information.
When will the Prime Minister stand in his place and apologize to Brian Mulroney for tarnishing the name of the Conservative Party of Canada?
Political FinancingOral Questions
The Speaker Peter Milliken
Order. The hon. President of the Treasury Board has the floor. He is rising to answer the hon. member's question. We will have a little order.
John Baird ConservativePresident of the Treasury Board
Mr. Speaker, I always find it interesting when members of the Liberal Party bring up the name of Brian Mulroney. The last time the Liberals were in government, they were forced not only to apologize to Brian Mulroney, but to give back more than $1 million in a defamation suit involving Mr. Mulroney for the lies that were spread.
What we are seeing opposite is character assassination of the worst kind. What we need the members of the Liberal Party to do is to speak up against the raising of the dead by the member for Eglinton—Lawrence, to speak up against the crazy campaign tactics and to speak up against the shakedown of young school children for their milk money.
Political FinancingOral Questions
The Speaker Peter Milliken
Order. I remind hon. members we are in question period and not a yelling match. The hon. member for South Shore—St. Margaret's now has the floor and we will have a little order.
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Mr. Speaker, the adoption of the 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement was supposed to give the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization some teeth. Yet, successive Liberal fisheries ministers failed to have the agreement implemented by NAFO and the result has been rampant overfishing. Enough is enough.
Can the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans please tell Canadians how he is fighting overfishing and delivering actions, not words, after more than 10 years of empty Liberal promises?