Debates of March 29th, 2007

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, there is a question that comes to my mind. We have put in place a process to get answers quickly, to demand answers and also send the message that anybody who will resist giving those answers will be called upon with even further authority. The question that crosses my mind is, why do the Liberals not want to get these answers right away?

[Sue Barnes, Liberal, London West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that the minister listen to this question.

The public safety minister is now in an uncomfortable ethical quandary. The testimony at the committee yesterday has impacted and will impact on his ability to properly perform his duties as public safety minister for Canadians, considering the RCMP review is involving the minister himself.

Is it not imperative for the integrity of this investigation and the institution of the RCMP to have the minister step aside at this time? Perception is as important as reality.

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, to the member and the nine people that stood to applaud her, I would like to say that questions do come to mind on this. I will say that I have no ethical quandary in demanding the truth on this particular issue.

When we have on record here previous federal Liberal ministers saying there is no problem, and I have that here, my predecessor saying there is no problem with this particular situation, it gives us great concern.

I guess the other question is, when are all these Liberal cover-ups going to end? When are we going to see an end to this?

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday at the public accounts committee we heard senior RCMP officers describe in detail critical problems at the top echelons of the RCMP. We heard of intimidation and revenge, nepotism, wrongdoers rewarded, whistleblowers punished, fraud, perjury and criminal investigations shut down. Some officers were nearly in tears.

Why did Conservative committee members for months block all attempts to bring this information before the committee? Was that just a mistake?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, it is getting pretty rich when we have the people who oversaw this entire mess trying to pass and duck the blame. I will say that the previous Liberal minister of public safety said the following when asked a question by a Conservative member:

--let me reassure everyone in the House that there is no conduct on the part of the commissioner that needs to be investigated.

There is some conduct that needs to be investigated and we are going after it. We will get to the truth.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP is a national icon, the red tunic an international symbol of integrity and respect. The 25,000 rank and file RCMP officers deserve an RCMP they can trust and be proud of, not one that steals their pension funds.

The minister stated that committees are creatures of their own will and that he will not interfere. However, the voting record will show that for months the Conservatives have blocked all attempts to bring this sordid matter forward and they have had the information for months.

Will the government members of public accounts stop blocking the committee from calling witnesses, along with a public inquiry, guarantee full--

[The Speaker, Peter Milliken]

The hon. Minister of Public Safety.

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if the member opposite has done the math, but as much as we would like to have a majority on that committee so we could get to the truth on a lot of matters, we do not even have a majority there. There has been no blocking this. It is Conservative MPs who have raised this issue with me. It is Conservative MPs who have been talking on this issue.

There is something else that came out yesterday. I do agree with the member on one area. This is a very large force of people when we talk about the RCMP. One of the people testifying yesterday even said that there were a very small few who he felt had done wrong and that the majority of the force are fine, upstanding individuals upholding the law.

Aerospace Industry

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if the government refuses to budge, hundreds of good jobs in the aerospace sector will not materialize.

Given the importance for the entire south shore of Montreal to maintain and develop its expertise in the aerospace sector, could the government not show us that it intends to take action and do so quickly?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, we have already taken action in the aerospace sector. I would like to remind my colleague that we have committed to billions of dollars in military procurement that will benefit Canada's entire aerospace industry. The Bloc Québécois could never have done as much because it is destined to remain an opposition party forever.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the entire sector and all stakeholders ready to go ahead with this project are worried because of the very short lead time for creating new jobs at Pratt & Whitney.

Given that a business decision is about to be made and that it could place Montreal's south shore at a disadvantage, could the members of government act with a sense of urgency in keeping with the situation?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, in our last budget we set out specific measures to foster investment so that we can develop competitive businesses and create employment in this country.

Investment in the country is important. We have measures enabling the private sector to increase its investments in machinery and equipment and that is why the Bloc Québécois supported our budget.

Saint-Hubert Airport

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government has made a real mess of managing airports in the past. We only need to look at Mirabel. Today the government has an opportunity to try again and avoid another mess at the Saint-Hubert airport.

Could the government act responsibly this time and inject $70 million into the construction and development of this airport?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I had a chance to answer the hon. member yesterday when I told her that we could study this project in light of future infrastructure programs. I asked her to be patient.

However, when my hon. colleague raises the issue of Mirabel, so far as I am concerned and on this side of the House, we feel that this was a promise made and a promise kept. We returned 11,000 acres to the Mirabel farmers. So we kept our promise.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in addition to creating hundreds of quality jobs, this $70 million investment would help to make the Saint-Hubert airport profitable in the short, medium and long runs, would add another 35,000 passengers a year, and would make it possible to get a $135 million investment from Pratt & Whitney in Saint-Hubert de Longueuil.

What will it take to make the minister understand how important this investment is for the development of this region?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the hon. member once again that she wants us to take one-third of the regional economic development budget and use it to repave the runway of her airport in Saint-Hubert.

I want to remind the House that good regional economic development means being proper and fair to all the regions in Quebec. There are 14 regions here. That is the situation in which we work. The Blackburn plan and the six actions that we have taken have been very well received in the regions of Quebec.

Income Trusts

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister once called any tax on income trusts an attack on seniors but then he flip-flopped and destroyed billions of their savings. He also deprived them of a high yield savings vehicle that many seniors use to pay their daily bills. Now he has tabled a bill to kill retirement communities that use the real estate trust structure.

After taking seniors' savings, seniors' incomes and now seniors' homes, where will the finance minister's next attack on seniors be aimed?

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the member knows that this government acted decisively and, I might add, confidentially to bring tax fairness to the Canadian tax base. The member knows that he complimented the government on doing this. He said that this was absolutely the right thing to do. What is he complaining about now?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, not a word about seniors' savings, seniors' incomes or seniors' homes. Obviously she does not care.

In addition, the minister's plan to help the working poor is so mean-spirited that a person working full time on minimum wage gets nothing.

Why has the minister produced yet another gimmick that does nothing real? Is it because poor people do not vote Conservative or is he on a mission to change his image from slasher of schools and hospitals to saintly defender of the poor? That is a bit of a stretch.

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, that, of course, is nonsense. In fact, in the last two budgets, in the last year or so, this government has taken over 800,000 low income Canadians completely off the tax rolls.

In this last budget, we brought in a new working income tax benefit for the working poor. We also cut the GST, which is the only tax that a lot of the poorest Canadians pay.

We care very much for the low income people in this country and we are doing something about it, unlike the previous government.

The Budget

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.

He stated in the budget that he would put an end to federal and provincial squabbling but not so. Will he write Rodney MacDonald, Lorne Calvert and Danny Williams and apologize for breaking his promise to be principal beneficiaries of their resources?

He attempted to flatter Danny Williams but the message from Danny Williams to him and the rest of Canada was quite clear: “Flaherty will get you nowhere”.

[The Speaker, Peter Milliken]

I know the hon. member is indulging in a play on words but he knows he must not refer to members by name. I think he was referring to the Minister of Finance.

We will now have an answer from the hon. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

[Loyola Hearn, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, we have not had such excitement since George Baker left the Chamber.

It was quite evident in the motion that the member presented in the House last week that he has not read the budget. I would suggest to him that when he goes home tonight that he get his stepladder, climb up on the bureau, get his copy of the budget and read it.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

It is not my fault, Mr. Speaker, seriously.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!