House of Commons Hansard #151 of the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was companies.
Raymonde Folco Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
Mr. Speaker, they would do better to keep quiet.
Day after day, the Conservatives demonstrate that they do not care in the least about respect for official languages. The Commissioner of Official Languages confirmed that his office has received 117 complaints pertaining to the cancellation of the court challenges program.
Will the Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages wake up one day and decide to defend the rights of linguistic minorities in Canada?
Josée Verner ConservativeMinister of International Cooperation and Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages
Mr. Speaker, as you know, the case is before the courts and so I will not comment on it. However, what about the position of the Liberals, who voted against our budget? What about the Liberal decision to cut $100 million from funds allocated to communities between 1993 and 1997? In our last budget, our position on minority communities was very clear: we allocated $30 million for communities. Unfortunately, the Liberals do not want these monies to be given to communities.
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Labour is not the only one who is playing hide and seek with his air travel expenses. So is the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, except that he does not even need to rent a plane to travel. His department’s fleet is at his disposal. Now, that is service.
What I want to know is why he is hiding the expenses incurred for his travels on his private jet. Will he say he is sorry? Will he tell us that he has been caught and that he will not do it any more?
Peter Van Loan ConservativeLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, all these travel expenses are disclosed as required under the law. What they tell us is that Conservative ministers spend an awful lot less travelling in general than previous Liberal ministers.
In fact, when we talk about Challenger travel, former Liberal ministers travelled 300% more, 81 flights versus 27 for Conservative ministers.
When we talk about these other flights, we can look at the Minister of Transport's predecessors, over three times as much on these types of flights.
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Mr. Speaker, the numbers are lower because the government hides the expense and that is illegal.
The government is developing a culture of secrecy about the spending habits of cabinet ministers. First, the labour minister was caught hiding the expenses for his plane travel. Now we learn that the transport minister is also trying to cover up his travel expense claims, but we caught him. Ouch.
If the minister thinks that government business requires him to travel around the country, why does he not follow the rules and publish those expenses? Why not?
Peter Van Loan ConservativeLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform
Mr. Speaker,--
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
Order, please. Despite the howls of pain, we have to hear the answer. The hon. government House leader has the floor. We will have a little order, please.
Peter Van Loan ConservativeLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform
Mr. Speaker, I cannot believe that this member just accused his own colleagues, the predecessors, of hiding illegally $95,572.93 in flights that they did not disclose in their public disclosures, but rather through the department disclosures.
If it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander. I do not think he really thinks they concealed $100,000 of hidden stolen money. It was the $40 million under the sponsorship scandal that disappeared and was stolen.
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
Mr. Speaker, this week, the Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages announced some good news for francophone minority communities: $555,000 in support for the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada and $500,000 for the Réseau des cégeps et collèges francophones du Canada.
Can the minister tell us about other initiatives by the government to assist official language minority communities?
Josée Verner ConservativeMinister of International Cooperation and Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent question. Allow me to once again remind the House of our government's unwavering commitment to linguistic duality.
In our latest budget, we announced an additional contribution of $30 million. Unfortunately, both the Liberals and the New Democrats voted against this budget. They decided to oppose concrete investments that will enable young Canadians, in particular, to develop in their own language.
For his part, Justin Trudeau, the star candidate of the Liberals, even proposed the abolition of—
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, yesterday's arrest of an employee with the Department of the Environment was a classy case of hitting a fly with a hammer. This is a very heavy handed approach I am sure designed to send a chill throughout the public service.
Author Yann Martel just sent the Prime Minister the book Animal Farm. Perhaps he should have sent another Orwell book, 1984.
It is important to note that in advance of this year's budget many media organizations had full details of the budget documents, vital strategic information. Who leaked that secret information and why was no one arrested?
Peter Van Loan ConservativeLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform
Mr. Speaker, as the member for Winnipeg North knows very well, there are laws in place and oaths that public officials and public servants take that they must respect. When the police see that those laws have been broken, they do the appropriate thing, investigate and take action.
I know the member for Winnipeg North knows that, because without reference to a book but perhaps to a movie, it is kind of like Groundhog Day. After all, this is the principle the member for Winnipeg North was trying to advance when she asked the RCMP to investigate the income trust leaks.
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, Canadians remember the good old dark days when the Conservative government simply fired whistleblowers and public servants who did not agree with government policy. Now the government simply calls in the police and puts them in handcuffs.
Recently, the Department of the Environment leaked government plans for incandescent light bulbs. Weeks before that, the budget was on the front page of national newspapers across the country. No one has been investigated, no one has been arrested, and no one has been charged.
Has the government asked the RCMP to investigate these leaks? Is anyone in the PMO about to be marched out in handcuffs?
Peter Van Loan ConservativeLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows full well the importance of the laws respecting the confidentiality of government and cabinet information, the confidentiality that is required to be applied to them, and the obligation of the police to act.
It is the same law that applies federally. It is the same law that applies provincially, even in provinces with NDP governments like Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food is becoming infamous for taking money away from farmers, but his retroactive changes to the family farm options program is contemptible.
Cancelling the program in midstream three months after farmers completed their financial plans is an absolute betrayal of farmers. Officials have now confirmed this will take close to $.25 billion out of low income farmers' pockets.
Why is the minister taking $.25 billion away from hard-pressed farmers and why does the Prime Minister allow this betrayal of farmers to--
Chuck Strahl ConservativeMinister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board
Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member was lighting his hair on fire, but it was kind of hard to tell.
He is the hon. member who, when I introduced the farm family options program, told me this was a disgusting program. He said it would empty the farms in rural Canada. He said it would depopulate the farm centres, that I had to stop the program, and it was a terrible thing.
We have made some changes to the program and we are going to give that money and much more to farmers, another $1 billion announced this year.
The member for Malpeque just does not get it. We are here to help farmers. He has never helped farmers and he certainly is not helping them now.
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Mr. Speaker, the minister wants to talk about fire, but he is burning actual currency that farmers could have had that they could have put in their pockets to give their families some income.
This outrageous decision by the minister robs low income farmers of the opportunity for some financial redress. They had planned on up to $18,000 per family.
Obviously, this is now a government that breaks its word. It is a government that talks accountability, but fails to live up to its commitments and it is a minister whose words of last year are now a broken trust.
Will the minister restore today the $246 million that he took away?
Chuck Strahl ConservativeMinister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board
Mr. Speaker, this is rich. This is the member who said that the farm family option program was a blame the victim program. He said I had to stop it. He put out a press release saying to stop this program and that it was the worst program we have ever seen.
I think there is some merit to it. We are going to continue it. It is a trial program and it is going to continue for another year, but we are putting that $240 million and another $1 billion on top of that to help farmers across the country.
He said in a press release that this was the worst program he has ever seen, that it is a blame the victim program, and I had to scrap it. Now that I have changed it, the poor member for Malpeque just does not get it.
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
Mr. Speaker, we have a question today. In light of what the Prime Minister said earlier, there do not seem to be any negotiations between NATO and Canada over what will happen after February 2009.
Yesterday, his Minister of Foreign Affairs responded to a question from James Cudmore on CBC Radio. The question was quite clear:
“Were there discussions involving NATO and other allies for battle group replacements on the ground post January 2009?” The answer was the following: “You're putting me in a difficult situation because you know a lot of the discussions are in camera, not in public, and there were certainly discussions about the combat role played by countries”.
Who said--