Debates of Nov. 23rd, 2012

Ethics

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the minister will answer this question.

The Conservative money-laundering scheme has now reached staggering proportions. There was $100,000 in illegal donations funnelled through a Montreal Conservative riding slush fund. Eleven of the people listed so far have said that they did not even know that a donation had been recorded using their name.

Who is fundraising in this riding? None other than Dimitri Soudas and Senator Leo Housakos. When will the government come clean on its role in this scheme and kick Housakos out of the caucus?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing that on a day such as this the Liberals would decide to throw stones and make unfounded allegations. A clean conscience for a Liberal is really evidence of a short memory, a very short memory indeed. In fact, they have forgotten that just two days ago their own Liberal mayor from London, who sat in the House as a minister, was charged three times with having defrauded taxpayers to pay for his son's wedding.

When will the Liberals learn that they should stop throwing rocks when they live in a glass house?

Foreign Investment

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last night, the NDP held a public forum using social media to consult the public on the sale of Nexen, and thousands of Canadians participated. We learned some things. Canadians have had enough of the Conservatives' secrets. They have had enough of their irresponsible approach to the development of our resources. They have had enough of seeing the Conservatives approve another foreign takeover with no questions asked.

Why are the Conservatives refusing to consult Canadians before letting a company like CNOOC take control of our resources?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Minister of State (Science and Technology) (Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario)]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear about this. On one side of the House we have the radical NDP who would refuse and block all transactions and foreign investment. On the other side of the House, we have the Liberal Party who rubber-stamped every transaction.

This Conservative government will always look closely at these transactions and only do what is in the best interests of Canadians and this nation.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives refuse and block any consultation with the Canadian public and that is wrong.

Yesterday, we were consulting with Canadians. We hosted a Twitter town hall and we took the time to listen to Canadians. Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, Canadians—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Burnaby—New Westminster has the floor. We will have a little bit of order, please.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives get very angry when we talk about consulting with Canadians. We think it is the right thing to do.

Canadians are hopping angry. They want to know why energy resources are being sold off to a Chinese state-owned company without any consultation. Canadians want public consultation. Preston Manning wants public consultation. Even John McCain wants public consultation.

We consult. We listen. Why will the government not do the same?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Minister of State (Science and Technology) (Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario)]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the NDP for finally learning how to use social media. It does remind me a little bit about close encounters of the third grade here sometimes.

However, I can tell the House that Canadians all know that the NDP is against all foreign trade. It would simply block all advantages for this great country. The Liberal Party on the other hand just rubber-stamps everything. I can assure the House that the minister is looking at these transactions with great scrutiny. We will do what is in the best interests of Canadians, as we always have.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the Conservatives, the NDP consults Canadians to better protect their jobs and to better represent their interests.

We consulted people across the country to hear what they think about the deal between Nexen and CNOOC. The Conservatives would rather keep Canadians in the dark. They do not want to say what will happen if we relinquish control of our natural resources to a Communist Chinese government.

Another country is getting ready to nationalize the oil sands. Why hide the truth from Canadians?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Minister of State (Science and Technology) (Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario)]

Mr. Speaker, this party, the Conservative government, will scrutinize this deal with great care. We will only act in the best interests of Canadians. That is our record.

The record on the NDP side is to simply vote no. NDP members may claim to consult Canadians, but then they come here and simply vote no to all foreign trade. The Liberals, on the other hand, vote yes. They just rubber-stamp these deals. We are looking at the opportunity to scrutinize a deal and only do what is in the best interests of Canadians. Maybe the NDP members should consult on their carbon tax.

National Defence

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Mr. Speaker, regarding the F-35s, people are fed up with this government saying one thing in public and doing something else behind closed doors.

First the Conservatives tried to hide $10 billion from Canadians. Then they promised to release a supposedly independent cost estimate 60 days after the information was available. That should have been done in July, but we have since learned that this is being pushed back to 2013. So now it will be July 2013.

When will the Conservatives finally be transparent and tell us what is going on with this file?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women]

Mr. Speaker, I think there is nothing more transparent than committing to table the updated cost estimates for the F-35 here in Parliament so that parliamentarians and all Canadians can take a look at those.

The reason for the delay was that the independent firm we hired needed more time to do the independent validation of the Department of National Defence's work. My understanding from the secretariat is that the report is forthcoming, and I look forward to sharing it with Canadians and Parliament.

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Mr. Speaker, there is no oversight and transparency when the Conservatives are whitewashing the Auditor General's report.

Yesterday, the Minister of Public Works said that the statement of requirements would be amended for the so-called options analysis. Will the minister commit to make public the new amended statement of requirements to prove to Canadians that this is not another case of saying one thing in public and doing something else behind closed doors.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women]

Mr. Speaker, there has been a secretariat set up that includes not only all the senior public servants who manage military procurement but two additional independent members, one of whom is a former, very well-respected Canadian Auditor General. They are overseeing this process.

All of the reports will be posted online. They will be available for the public to see. In terms of the statement of requirements, I said yesterday that the secretariat will undertake a full options analysis. The statement of requirements will be set aside while that full options analysis is done.

Ethics

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we learned this morning that Pierre Poutine is not the only character in the Conservative farce. At least 11 people who made donations to the Conservative association in Laurier—Sainte-Marie deny that they did so. They say it is untrue. Thousands of dollars changed hands without the supposed donors knowing anything about it. Using false names is the latest in the interminable list of Conservative violations of the law.

Who really gave those thousands of dollars to the Conservatives? Business people? Consulting engineering firms? And what did the Conservatives promise in exchange?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, all the details the hon. member is talking about were provided to Elections Canada, which certified the information years ago.

While I am on my feet, I know that the member across the way has been a very generous and prolific donor to the separatist cause in Quebec. I also know that there was a comment made by one of his Liberal colleagues:

Canada’s in bad shape right now because Albertans are controlling our community and social democratic agenda. That’s not working.

That was the Liberal member for Papineau. I wonder if the member agrees.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I wish the member would quit skipping over the questions.

This one is pretty simple. Conservatives used the good names of people to funnel money into their countless campaigns. Take Rocco Carbone. Elections Canada had him listed as a $666 Conservative donor. However, what does Mr. Carbone say? “I never gave no money to no party”.

Is this just another Conservative dirty trick used to circumvent the election law, or are they suggesting that Mr. Carbone and others just forgot they supported the Conservatives?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP is not only negative, it is double negative over there.

The reality is that they have nothing but negativity over there in order to distract from the $340,000 in illegal union money they took out of the pockets of hard-working unionized blue collar workers across the country. They still have not told Canadians why they kept those years of illegal money secret for so long. Perhaps the member could shed some light on it now.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Mr. Speaker, once again, he skips and tiptoes around the questions.

This is an obvious shell game. A list of phantom donors was created, with half a million dollars donated to a sleeper Conservative Montreal riding association, then that money was transferred out to other Conservative ridings across Quebec. Who organized the event where all these dirty shenanigans happened? It was a senator, Leo Housakos, appointed by the Prime Minister.

Has Senator Housakos explained this scheme to his caucus colleagues and will they now tell the House what he said?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I have already answered that question. I said that all details regarding those transactions were given to Elections Canada years ago. Those details were certified by the elections agency. The question is, why did the NDP not give information to Elections Canada about the $340,000 in illegal union money it received until the NDP got caught? It took the courageous work of the member for Peterborough to expose their law-breaking for the NDP to finally come clean.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I understand why the parliamentary secretary is playing the clown: the Conservative Party has been involved in in and out schemes, fraud, illegal spending, excessive election spending, straw men, and so much more.

We know the Conservatives have given up on Quebec and on Montreal, because the money raised in Laurier—Sainte-Marie was not spent there. It was transferred to other ridings all over the province. And who got over $40,000 in this operation? It is someone who holds a frequent flyer card with the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, the hon. member for Mégantic—L’Érable.

Is he going to apologize? Is he going to return the money until we find out exactly where it came from?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I have already answered the question. On the other hand, the hon. member has not yet answered the question in the House.

I already pointed out that the member has donated not once, not twice, but 29 times to the separatist Québec Solidaire. I know that he has very passionate views on the subject.

Now we have comments by the Liberal member for Papineau, who said:

Canada’s in bad shape right now because Albertans are controlling our community and social democratic agenda. That’s not working.

I want to invite the member to rise in his place and finally contribute to national unity by denouncing these harsh—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for Malpeque.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, let us try another minister.

Conservative corruption seems to know no bounds. Now it is nothing short of money laundering. There was $100,000 funnelled through a fake Conservative campaign in Laurier—Sainte-Marie. The individuals listed, as has been mentioned, say it was not their money. Who really bankrolled this? Is this corporate money?

I ask the Minister of Public Works, did the people who actually donate the money get any government contracts?