Mr. Speaker, on October 5 I posed a question to the government regarding the ethical conduct of the Minister of Natural Resources.
In response to my question on October 5, the Minister of Transport said:
We have brought in the toughest accountability rules in the history of this great country. We are committed to running a clean, open and transparent government....
However, this is obviously not the case, as the Ethics Commissioner has now called for a full inquiry into the ethical conduct of the minister, based on the evidence obtained by her in a preliminary inquiry.
There are a number of questions to be asked and the government continues to stonewall by saying it wants to wait until the Ethics Commissioner finishes her job.
However, the fact remains that under subsection 41(1) of the Canada Marine Act, the Minister of Transport, who is responsible for the port authority, has the authority to ask for a special review. It is his own authority and it can happen as often as he wishes.
There are questions to ask of the port authority board. The central questions include the following. Why was so much money spent on luxurious meals? Some $50,000 was spent by the Minister of Natural Resources in her role as the president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority at the time and by other senior managers at the plush Harbour Sixty Steakhouse located downstairs in their office building over the eight months of 2008. That was $50,000, including one $9,000 lunch for 50 people on one particular day. Just exactly what costs so much? Who was present? What was discussed? What port authority business was conducted at those meals to possibly justify those expenses? What was the expense approval policy in force at the time? What evidence is there that the policy was honoured?
Why did the chair of the board of directors, Mr. McQueen, cast the deciding vote in January 2009 to suppress an inquiry into another $65,000 spent by the Toronto Port Authority to give legal advice to him and to the Minister of Natural Resources in her prior role as president and CEO of the port authority? The inquiry was supposed to determine whether the advice was personal to them and, therefore, improperly paid for by the Toronto Port Authority, or to the benefit of the port authority and, therefore, properly disclosed to the port authority board.
Finally, there also is the question of why were the board minutes doctored by the chairman, Mr. Mark McQueen, last December, six months after they had been approved by the then board of directors when he was not even the chair? I am pretty sure approved minutes should not be altered. It appears that it is meant to cover up political interference and improprieties, and the government is co-operating.
If the government does not call a special review, which the Minister of Transport is authorized to do, notwithstanding the conclusions of the Commissioner of Ethics, clearly the government is not part of the solution but part of the problem and is participating in a cover-up.