Debates of April 13th, 2010

Ethics

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister was made aware of the allegations last Thursday and Friday, and these were duly forwarded to the appropriate authorities. We will let the RCMP do its job and draw its own conclusions.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the last time a prime minister asked the RCMP to investigate one of its ministers was when Brian Mulroney was in power. At the time, Mr. Mulroney gave the reasons for his actions.

Is the Prime Minister less transparent than his predecessor, Mr. Mulroney?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, after this allegation by a third party came to light and reached the Prime Minister, he took action on Friday morning.

Let us be clear. These allegations do not concern any other member, senator or government employee.

Access to Information

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Information Commissioner's report is proof that this government is anything but transparent. In addition to receiving a failing grade, the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister's department, is clogging the access to information system by requiring that sensitive requests go through it before information is made public.

When will the government stop hiding the truth from people?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the advice we have received from the Information Commissioner. We are going to keep on improving the process of providing information to agencies and Canadians that request it.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the political interference in the access to information process is so disturbing that the commissioner has announced that she will be systematically investigating political interference when she assesses the various departments.

How can the government, which promised transparency, explain that the Information Commissioner has reached the point where she is noting all the political interference designed to block the release of incriminating documents?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, it is very important to note that there are more than 40,000 information requests. We have provided information in most cases, but we want to improve the process.

It is also important to note that the commissioner did not find any case of interference by a minister. That is very clear.

Ethics

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the lack of transparency of the government truly is mind boggling. There were the bogus closed-door consultations on pensions that cost $375 just to get in the door. There is a complete absence of the truth on the scandal regarding the detainee transfers in Afghanistan. Now the so-called tough on crime Prime Minister will not even tell Canadians why he has called the cops on one of his own.

Why are the Conservatives afraid to tell Canadians the truth for a change?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, that was quite the spirited question from the leader of the New Democratic Party. Here is what happened. On Thursday evening some allegations were made--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. I know the Minister of Transport's microphone may not be working very well, but with the noise in the House I cannot hear a word he is saying. We have to be able to hear the minister. Everyone wants to hear the answers to the questions. The Minister of Transport has the floor. We will have some order please.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am always calm, cool and collected in this place as has been my long-term practice, but let me say this. Some serious allegations were raised with the Prime Minister's Office. He immediately acted in a quick fashion, an appropriate fashion. He referred the matter to the relevant authorities so that they could look into the issue.

I think that is a high standard of ethical conduct and one with which Canadians should be proud.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, maybe the cat has got his tongue, or is it the Prime Minister?

It is pathetic to see the law and order party hiding behind the police and refusing to answer questions. This party is so far from being transparent that even the Office of the Ethics Commissioner said, “based on the information the Commissioner has at this time, she is not in a position to proceed with an inquiry”.

Why are the Conservatives not telling us the whole story? What do they have to hide? Who does the Prime Minister want to hide? Himself?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, if we had anything to hide, we would not have referred the matter to an independent officer of this House. We would not have referred this matter to the independent Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the relevant authorities.

Let me be very clear. The allegations in question do not involve any other minister, any other member of Parliament, any senator, or any employee of the Government of Canada.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern here. That is the problem.

What the Information Commissioner is reporting today is that there is a pervasive problem of delays in responding to access to information requests, inappropriate use of time extensions, ill-enforced delegation of authority for decisions.

The government will not tell Canadians what is going on in Afghanistan. It will not tell Canadians what is going on with Mr. Jaffer's wife. It will not tell Canadians the truth. What is holding the government back? Come on, let us get some answers around here.

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the advice that we get from the Information Commissioner.

As a matter of fact, she has pointed out there are 40,000 requests. That is an increase. The majority of those are handled within 30 days. Another 10% are handled within between 60 and 120 days. There is about 12% of those requests that take more than 120 days to get answers. We want to see that improve. Every minister is committed to do that.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, normally when the government runs into ethical trouble, as it did with NAFTA-gate and the Julie Couillard affair, it does not go to the police.

When the government needed a whitewash to try to convince Canadians that no one got privileged access to insider information, it hired a small Ottawa firm called BMCI. Why was BMCI not called in this time?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I am not familiar with this group, BMCI, to which the member for Winnipeg South Centre refers.

What I can say is when serious allegations were brought forward to the Prime Minister, he forwarded them to the relevant authorities, to an independent officer of Parliament and to the independent police authorities. It was the responsible thing to do. We will await the conclusions that come from these relevant authorities.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, we know the government was happy with the reports it got from BMCI in the NAFTA-gate and Couillard affairs. After all, it was told what it wanted to hear.

Why would the government not investigate whether privileged and valuable information was shared with the men behind Green Power Generation Corporation?

Is the real reason the government did not hire BMCI this time is that one of the people on the payroll at BMCI is Patrick Glémaud who is also Rahim Jaffer's business partner?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, that is a bit of a stretch. I have not heard of the organization in question to which the member refers.

When the allegations came forward to the Prime Minister, he asked an independent officer of Parliament and he asked the relevant police authorities to look into the matter. I think it showed a high standard of ethical conduct to allow the appropriate authorities to look into the matter in question.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, two offices side by side on Queen Street, both employing Rahim Jaffer's business partner, Patrick Glémaud, the very same Patrick Glémaud who was the Conservative candidate in Ottawa—Vanier in the last election and featured a campaign photo op with the Prime Minister. They are two well-connected Conservatives. One is the former Conservative caucus chair and husband of a minister, and the other is a Conservative candidate. They had privileged access, they say, to the government for themselves and their clients.

How could Canadians possibly believe otherwise?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, it is a very interesting report. Transport Canada is also on Queen Street. I wonder if that is a coincidence.

Let me say this. When the Prime Minister received the information, he took action quickly. He took the appropriate action and referred the matter to the relevant independent officer of Parliament and the relevant police authorities. He did so quickly. I think that was the important and ethical thing to do.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, here is a very clear, simple question. How many firms are there in Canada with less than 10 professionals that have received more than $3 million of federal government contracts since the government came into power? Can the minister name a single one, other than Rahim Jaffer's business partner and Conservative Party candidate's BMCI?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, it is such a well-known organization that I quite frankly have never heard about it personally.

This government has put ethics and accountability high on the agenda. The very first piece of legislation this government introduced and successfully passed later that year was the Federal Accountability Act.

When we were fighting to bring in the federal accountability legislation, every single step of the way we got opposition and fights from the Liberal Party of Canada. We cleaned up the ethical mess that we inherited, and we can be very proud of that.

Afghanistan

[Claude Bachand, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Sansterre, the chief investigator looking into cases of torture in Afghanistan, indicated to the Military Police Complaints Commission that he had no reason to doubt the good faith of the Afghan authorities who investigated the cases of torture. Now there is some detective work.

How can the minister claim that everything is fine and that no torture has been proven, when the military police blindly trusted the Afghan torturers?