Madam Speaker, the government has been stonewalling on issues I have raised about the ethical conduct of the Minister of Natural Resources and has been basically saying it is going to wait until the Ethics Commissioner reports. However, we all know that the Ethics Commissioner can only report with regard to the Conflict of interest Act.
It is solely the Prime Minister who can judge a minister's ethical performance under his guidelines for ministers. We used to have an ethics counsellor between the Prime Minister and the ministers themselves, but now it is totally the Prime Minister's call.
To remind members, we are talking about a Minister of Natural Resources who had a political fundraiser which utilized the resources of the Toronto Port Authority, a federal authority. It was confirmed in writing by the president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority that, in fact, it happened and that it had taken corrective action. However, the board never responded and it has a responsibility here.
There is also the issue of the Minister of Natural Resources, as president and CEO at the time, signing an expense report, which is to be signed exclusively by the chair of the board, but the minister signed it herself. On the bottom it read, “Chair refused to sign”, but she signed it anyway.
There were two other expense reports that were reimbursed but were not authorized by the chairman of the board. There was a $9,000 lunch for 50 people, about $180 per person. The most expensive meal on the entire menu at that restaurant is only $80. After taking off the tip, it looks like half of the money was spent on alcohol.
The board is dysfunctional. It has demonstrated gross mismanagement of the authority. It doctored board minutes that were approved in December of 2008. The previous chair of the board has said publicly that it was illegal for the new chair of the board and the then board to doctor and alter the board minutes, which was clearly an attempt to eliminate information that would indicate there was government interference with the board.
I have called for the Auditor General to be mandated to come in. In a previous request from the board of directors itself, the Auditor General responded that her mandate did not permit her to do that, but she can, if the Prime Minister temporarily expands her mandate, go in and clean up the mess. There was no answer to that.
Now the chair of the board, Mark McQueen, of the Toronto Port Authority has himself called for the Auditor General to come in. I do not know what the answer is going to be about the Auditor General, but I doubt that it is going to change.
However, section 41.(1) of the Canada Marine Act authorizes the Minister of Transport to call for a special report of this to clean up the mess. He should do that because we need the answers to these questions. They are not forthcoming from the government.