Mr. Speaker, on February 19, 2007, during question period, I asked the then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration a question.
This was my question.
Mr. Speaker, that is not all. To arrive in style at a county fair last September, the very same minister rented yet another limo, spending $862 so she could take in the sights for four hours.
The minister spent more on one four hour limo ride than her Conservative government gives to parents in one year. How does she justify that?
My ears were shocked to hear the minister's response. The minister's response was:
Mr. Speaker, where I live and where I travel there is often very limited access to public transit. Where I live there is no public transit.
No one is asking the minister to travel by public transit.
The minister, who is now the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, was the minister of human resources and social development when she tabled and spent all that money.
I will give a couple of examples of the expenses of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration: $2,496.98 at the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel for the minister, at $720 a night, and for her Conservative staffer, $285 a night, to attend the World Urban Forum which was held from June 18 to 20, 2006. Then she cost the taxpayers $805 for Canada Limousine Incorporated in Kitchener and gave a $105 tip on April 20, 2006. That is really nice.
I am sure a lot of Canadians would like to keep the so-called $100 per child under age six entirely in their pockets, but as they are doing their 2006 income tax reports, as we speak, they are finding out that the new government and the Prime Minister has pulled the wool over their eyes. The now know that the $100 child allowance per child under six years old is taxable and, guess what, the families that earn the least income get to keep the least of that $100.
However, the minister did not stop there. On the same day, April 20, 2006, her staffer rented a car from Budget car rental for $39 a day. Why could her staffer, at $39 for the entire day, not have driven the minister, instead of costing the taxpayers $805 so that she could have a uniformed chauffeur driving her in a limousine?
On March 19, 2006, there is $345 for Canada Limousine in London, Ontario--