Mr. Speaker, members may recall that on a number of occasions I rose in the House with regard to, unfortunately, alleged improprieties on behalf of the Minister of Natural Resources, and in fact made a complaint to the Ethics Commissioner.
At 3 p.m. last Thursday, I received a letter from the Ethics Commissioner in which she said, “I am writing to inform you that I have completed my preliminary inquiry in relation to your request of October 5th, 2009, for an inquiry into an alleged contravention of the Conflict of Interest Code by the Minister of Natural Resources. Based on the information before me, I believe that an inquiry is warranted. The basis for my decision is outlined below”.
It is clear now that the commissioner is satisfied that there are matters which appear to be in contravention of the Code of Ethics for members, as well as under the Conflict of Interest Act, at which she will be looking. One of the things we have asked for is that during the period in which the minister will be subject to a formal inquiry by the Ethics Commissioner that she step aside until that inquiry is complete.
It gets even more complicated because consequential to this, Mark McQueen, the chairman of the board of the Toronto Port Authority, which is implicated in these alleged wrongdoings, was appointed by the current Minister of Transport, who is responsible for the port authority. He has been pleading for the government to allow the Auditor General to come in to clean up the mess, to look at the problems and to try to deal with them.
When the chair of a board of a federal agency asks the government to take action, action should be taken. This is the second time the board has asked for an investigation and an inquiry to be done and the government continues to say that it is beyond the Auditor General's mandate.
One of the things I learned in my review of this matter is this. Section 41(1) of the Canada Marine Act, which is the act under which this port authority operates and which guides the Minister of Transport, in terms of his responsibility, says that it must have a special report, a special investigation at least once every five years. It also says that the minister has the discretion to have one as often as he deems is required.
At question here are things like doctoring board minutes, political interference, gross mismanagement and dysfunction of the board to the point where it cannot discharge its responsibilities.
My concern at this point is that the Toronto Port Authority, a federal agency, is not able to discharge its responsibilities. I am asking the minister to order a special investigation to clear the mess up.