Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege.
I wish to correct the misinformation that has been put before the House by the government House leader and ask the minister to correct the record. It has to do with allegations of commuting back and forth by a city councillor, who happened to have been me, about seven years ago in Toronto.
I want to make it very clear that unlike the allegations that were put forward, I was not commuting back and forth between city hall and my home, which was a four minute bicycle ride or a 10 minute walk away. It takes a heck of a lot longer in a vehicle.
For the record, the facts of the matter are that I was president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The city had a vehicle, not a limousine, a vehicle, driven by disabled workers, workers who had been injured on the job. The vehicle was used, instead of hiring a courier company, a limousine or a taxi to go to the airport or to deliver parcels, by 43 different councillors, all members of council, for practical purposes. It kept someone employed and saved the taxpayers money.
Those are the facts of the matter. Being president of the FCM required a great deal of travel back and forth to the airport at the time.
One fact to be noted is that unlike the situation with the travel of government ministers, all of these facts are on the public record.