Debates of Oct. 26th, 2009

Government Advertising

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. The hon. member for Willowdale has the floor. Order.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if that is requiring interpretation, I will follow that interpretation.

The government is consciously breaking the rules on purpose. Logos on cheques are bad enough, but that is merely a symptom of a larger disease and that is confusing the Government of Canada with the Conservative Party.

Democracy requires an impartial government, one that uses taxpayer money to benefit taxpayers, not the Conservative Party. When will it stop?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the independent Ethics Commissioner will speak to these issues, but I do have in my possession an email sent from the House of Commons office of the member opposite inviting people to “donate to Martha's leadership debt at www.liberal.ca/donate”. I wonder whether doing partisan fundraising right here on Parliament Hill would meet the ethics standards that she and her leader have been speaking of so strongly in recent weeks.

Natural Resources

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Natural Resources put herself in a conflict of interest by allowing a registered lobbyist to organize her recent political fundraiser. Contrary to federal law, she also misused the offices and private information of the Toronto Port Authority for that fundraiser. Now she officially recuses herself from any further contact with the lobbyists to prevent any conflict of interest or further conflict of interest.

When will the Prime Minister accept that his code of conduct for ministers has been blatantly violated by the minister, who refuses to be accountable to Parliament?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, our government takes these allegations seriously. We pride ourselves on accountability and ethics. That is why we strengthened the powers and responsibilities of those arm's-length agencies that are charged to investigate these matters.

The minister continues to cooperate fully with the Ethics Commissioner. The minister is following and will follow the commissioner's rulings and guidance on this very important issue.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the minister, who is sitting there, has refused to answer questions and to be accountable, as required by the Prime Minister's own code of ethical conduct. Now we find out that contrary to federal law, the minister misused the resources of the Toronto Port Authority during her last election campaign.

We also have learned that Colin McSweeney, eastern Ontario co-ordinator for the Conservative Party of Canada and the brother of the lobbyist who ran her recent fundraiser, is actually an employee of the minister herself.

Why does the minister believe that she is above the law and why is she showing such contempt for the rules of ethical conduct?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, an email was sent inappropriately. It was from a crown corporation, from a port authority. That was inappropriate and that has been acknowledged. The Ethics Commissioner was asked to look into this.

While we are focused on jobs and the economy, while we are focused on H1N1, while this government is focused on creating jobs and fighting crime, all the Liberal Party can do is try to force an unnecessary election and engage in some very nasty muckraking. That is regrettable.

National Defence

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this morning, Radio-Canada produced a scathing report on the state of several federal buildings, mostly located in the historic district of Old Quebec, around the Citadel. Of the 35 buildings examined, 31 were considered to be in a poor to tolerable state, and were considered a threat to public safety.

In light of this scathing report, can the Minister of National Defence explain why the $100 million budget announced last March to repair the Citadel was delayed for more than 10 years?

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question.

The Department of National Defence has 300 heritage buildings across Canada. The budgets for the maintenance of those buildings are not based on individual buildings. They are based on who are the custodians of the buildings and those are the various Canadian Forces bases.

Those bases set priorities for maintenance and repair of their realty assets including their heritage assets. Twenty per cent of the 300 DND heritage buildings are in the province of Quebec and DND is committed to meeting the responsibility for stewardship of all those buildings, regardless of where they are in Canada.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we can see that DND has been careless about its heritage buildings, and these facilities have become dangerous. Has the minister not learned his lesson from the Quebec City Armoury, which, according to some rumours, will take more than 10 years to rise from the ashes?

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, it has nothing to do with negligence of any kind.

The Canadian Forces, the Department of National Defence, takes very seriously its commitment and its responsibility to look after heritage buildings that are part of DND property. It will continue to do that.

We are spending $100 million to refurbish the Citadel. The issue of the armoury in Quebec is a very serious issue. We have taken it very seriously. The fact is it is a very old building that will take an awful lot of money and an awful lot of time to see set right, but we will set it right.

Forestry Industry

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this House adopted a Bloc motion calling on the government to help the forestry industry as it has helped the automotive industry in Ontario. During the debate on this motion, the Minister of State for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec deliberately played with words by confusing loan guarantees and accounts receivable insurance guarantees issued by EDS.

How can the minister be so ignorant of what is going on in the forestry industry as to confuse insurance guarantees and loan guarantees, which help forestry companies in a tangible way to deal with the forestry crisis by enabling them to get cash?

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Minister of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec)]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of ignorant, I would like to tell my colleague that the organization in question is a crown agency called EDC.

Through all of its financial products, EDC has provided the forestry industry in Quebec with $16 billion in support in the past 21 months. The information will be released in due course. There are trade secrets involved. The companies that receive support can go to a financial institution and access credit with the letters or guarantees they are given.

Since there will be a second question, I will be pleased to answer it.

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, according to the CEO of the Forest Industry Council, Guy Chevrette, what the minister said is gobbledygook.

I challenge the minister to tell us how much of the $16 billion has actually been used to help the forestry industry. How much?

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Minister of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec)]

Mr. Speaker, it comes as no surprise that a former provincial minister from a party that is friends with the party opposite would make such comments. It is not really surprising.

We are going to keep on doing our job. I just said that there are trade secrets involved that must be kept. However, during the year, EDC has issued press releases confirming that two kinds of assistance have been provided: Kruger has received over $24 million and AbitibiBowater has received $42 million in loan guarantees. EDC has made these things public. The full list may be very long.

Political Party Funding

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, obviously, Senator Housakos and the Prime Minister's advisor, Dimitri Soudas, know a lot of people. We have learned today that Senator Housakos organized fundraising events for Mario Dumont and the ADQ at the Onyx restaurant in Laval at the Tops entertainment complex, owned by Tony Accurso. Mr. Accurso generously picked up the $14,000 tab.

Is the Prime Minister also benefiting from the vast network of friends being built up by Senator Housakos and Mr. Soudas?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, we are getting to a stage now where the official opposition has abandoned discussing any serious public policy issues.

We are tremendously concerned about what we are seeing going on with H1N1. We are tremendously concerned about creating jobs. My colleague, the Minister of Human Resources, is working hard to make employment insurance more available to those hardest hit by the recession and all we have is the political muckraking of the members opposite.

I wonder whether those same members would have the courage to make these outrageous statements outside of this place.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Senator Housakos has confirmed that he knows Tony Accurso, whom he praised as a great businessman. It was also Senator Housakos who introduced Mr. Accurso to a former Montreal mayoral candidate, who recently resigned when his ties to Mr. Accurso became public.

Did this information influence the government's recent decision to give up, once and for all, on the idea of an inquiry regarding collusion among suppliers?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the member is very good at making outrageous allegations within the confines of this place where he enjoys protection. If he is so brave and so sure of the facts in this matter, he should place them before this House and he should have the courage to make these allegations outside the protection of this place.

Community Adjustment Fund

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the Cape Breton auto industry is shut down. We have lost over 300 auto parts jobs.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Industry is heavily favouring his own riding, even though the unemployment rate in Cape Breton is well below that in his riding: 6.8% versus our 13.5%.

The community adjustment fund has been abused. It has little to do with community adjustment and more to do with Conservative campaigning.

Why is the industry minister hijacking the community adjustment fund for his own advantage?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, hot off the trail of trying to force an unnecessary and unwanted election, the Liberal caucus is now throwing mud, making baseless accusations and presenting false information.

The hon. member well knows the kind of infrastructure money his own riding, his own community, received from this government, from this side of the House.

I wish they would spend as much time researching for the good of the public as they do on their pitiful attempts at overturning this government.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that we have three idle plants on the north side. We have well-trained people there. It is a perfect example of where the community adjustment fund should be invested.

A region with less than half the unemployment of Cape Breton, his region, has 15 times more funding.

What is it about the community adjustment fund that the minister does not understand?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, here is what the Liberal deputy premier of Ontario said about the funding in Ontario, “there is going to be a very equitable regional distribution”.

If the hon. member is so sure, he should add up all of the grants and all of the infrastructure payments and then we will compare apples to apples. On this side of the House, we know we have done something for Canada. Fair, equitable, more jobs and more recovery is what we are all about.

Justice

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, day after day, Canadians hear about criminals who get out of jail early: swindlers who bilk investors out of millions of dollars and leave them with nothing; and drug dealers who prey upon our most vulnerable citizens and ruin their lives forever. Some of these criminals are being released after serving only one-sixth of their sentence.

The Liberals believe that criminals should be released early. Our government, on the other hand, puts the rights of victims and law-abiding citizens first.

Would the minister tell this House what he plans to do to protect Canadians against serious criminals.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, many Canadians were surprised to learn about a system called accelerated parole review. Under that system, when non-violent, first-time offenders, major fraudsters and drug dealers are convicted for the first time, they are allowed to go out on day parole at one-sixth of their sentence and full parole at one-third of their sentence, and, what is more, it is virtually automatic. Even if the Parole Board believes they will go right back out and do the same thing all over again, it has no choice but to release them on the street.

Canadians think that is wrong. It offends their sense of justice. It offends us, too, which is why we are taking action today to fix it.