Debates of Sept. 24th, 2012

National Defence

[Matthew Kellway, NDP, Beaches—East York, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there was a time when they happily mugged for cameras in a cardboard F-35 and now they are running from W5's cameras.

The ministers in charge claim that the fix is not in, but first they included the F-35 in the secretariat's name, then they populated it with the same people who got us into this mess, then they hired an auditing firm connected with Lockheed Martin. Now we find out they are using Lockheed Martin's communications firm, paying 700,000 grand for “no comment”.

How much does is cost to get an honest answer?

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

Mr. Speaker, I have every faith in the individuals who are members of the secretariat charged with the due diligence necessary to make the decision to replace our CF-18s. They are the most senior public servants in our government responsible for military procurement. One of the independent members we asked to participate and who has agreed to do so is the former auditor general, Denis Desautels. I know these individuals have a lot of integrity and I would ask the member to allow them to do their work.

KPMG will be reviewing the cost estimates that the defence department has put forward, and we look forward to their making them public.

Government Accountability

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives need a public relations firm to manage their relations with the Parliamentary Budget Officer. After creating the position with much fanfare to give itself some ethical credibility, which has since been lost, the Conservatives are trying to undermine his job as much as possible.

The officer has resorted to legal recourse to try to obtain the information he is entitled to by law.

Why are the Conservatives afraid of making these figures public?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, we believe that rather than spending his time and energy tracking money that was not spent, the budget officer would do well to spend his time ensuring that money that will be spent is spent correctly.

As clearly shown in Canada's economic action plan, our budget 2012, we have a fair, a moderate, a balanced approach to make sure that we reduce expenditures on behalf of Canadians and at the same time deliver excellent services to Canadians. We will continue to do so because it helps create jobs and opportunities across our land.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives claim to be proud of their budget but why are they--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

Order. The hon. member for Parkdale--High Park has the floor.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the Conservatives are so proud, why are they so afraid of giving some basic information to the Parliamentary Budget Officer?

The Parliamentary Budget Officer is forced to take an unprecedented step and go to court to get some basic information he is entitled to because the Conservatives refuse to respect their own law. They seem to have no problem leaking top secret documents from our allies.

Why are they refusing to give the PBO the information he needs to do his job?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, we will continue to report to Parliament through the normal means, which are the estimates, quarterly financial reports and the consideration of the public accounts. The reports are presented to the House.

We will continue to report as required by Parliament. We are proud to do so because what we are doing is in the best interests of this country to create more jobs and opportunities across this great land.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Brampton West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, by introducing the faster removal of foreign criminals act our Conservative government will put a stop to serious foreign criminals being able to delay their removal from this country for years, sometimes for up to 10 years, during which time they can continue to commit crimes against innocent Canadian families.

Could the minister please update the House on the reaction of Canadians to this piece of legislation?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right that there is widespread and growing support for the faster removal of foreign criminals act, which would end a Liberal loophole that has allowed convicted serious foreign criminals to delay their deportation for years, and in far too many cases to go on to reoffend and create new victims.

That is why Victims of Violence has said it is very pleased with the government's changes in this legislation to remove dangerous foreign criminals from our country. It is why the Canadian Police Association has strongly backed the bill, and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. The only people who I know who are against it are a couple of immigration lawyers, the NDP and the Liberals. We ask them to get onboard with removing dangerous foreign criminals.

Public Safety

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the cat is out of the bag. The Conservatives are secretly considering the possibility of privatizing jails and have commissioned a major study of this matter.

The minister even had an in-depth discussion about private prisons with his British counterpart last May and then, in June, denied that private prisons were part of his plan.

I have two questions for the minister.

Do the Conservatives want to privatize jails? If they do not, why waste taxpayers' money on such a study?

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear that there are no plans to pursue privatized prisons similar to those implemented in the United States or by the Labour government in the United Kingdom. In fact, as the economic action plan 2012 made clear, there are no plans to build new prisons at all.

Our government strongly believes that the guarding of prisoners should be done by government.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, either privatization of prisons is on the table or it is not. The minister likes to talk about certain models being considered and certain models not.

A 1,400 page study--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

Order. The hon. member for Esquimalt--Juan de Fuca has the floor.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

A 1,400-page study about the privatization of prisons does not just appear out of nowhere. However, the Minister of Public Safety kept Canadians and even the correctional investigator in the dark about this secret study. Mike Harris already tried this in Ontario and it cost the taxpayers millions.

Why are the Conservatives wasting money investigating an idea that has already failed? Once again, are the Conservatives moving to privatize prisons in full or in part? Yes or no.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, there are already private services in prisons. Our psychiatrists, doctors, dentists, nurses and all kinds of services are privatized in prisons today. However, our government strongly believes that the guarding of prisoners should not be privatized. That should be done by government.

Government Spending

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

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives promised to hold the Old Port of Montreal Corporation to account. Unfortunately, they are allowing the wastefulness to continue. Thousands of dollars were spent to raise the CEO'S profile. Money was thrown out the window in order to secure a speaking engagement. The corporation even paid an outside firm $1,000 for an interview. It costs nothing to just pick up the telephone and ask for an interview.

Do the Conservatives believe it is all right to waste taxpayers' money to raise the profile of the CEO of a crown corporation?

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

Mr. Speaker, on this note I share the member's outrage. I have been alarmed by the reports coming out of this crown corporation. They are unacceptable. I asked the Auditor General to conduct an independent audit and he has agreed to do so and is doing that. In addition, at my request, the Old Port of Montreal agreed to put in place a third party, PricewaterhouseCoopers, that has to review and sign off on all of the port's expenses. Unfortunately, the expense in question happened before this extraordinary measure was put in place.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear the admission by a Conservative minister. Congratulations. Unfortunately, those at the top have set a bad example. At the same time they are cutting services to Canadians, the Conservatives are spending thousands of dollars on public relations campaigns. They tolerate unnecessary spending by their ministers and their officials: $700,000 to a public relations firm to say “no comment” on the F-35 file, and $50,000 to a communications firm to raise someone's profile.

Will the Conservatives go beyond what was just announced, send their own clear message and change their attitude towards wasting taxpayers' money?

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

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the Old Port, we have sent a message loud and clear. The Auditor General is doing an independent audit of the Old Port of Montreal and we have also put in place a third party in charge of reviewing all expenses and signing off on all expenses related to the Old Port of Montreal. Unfortunately, this particular expense happened before we put in place these measures and, as I said, it is unfortunate that this level of spending is happening in an independent crown corporation.

National Defence

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government has got the F-35 process totally backwards. The defence department was supposed to produce a statement of requirements first, that is, what Canada needs these planes to do. After that it should have been up to Public Works to launch a bidding process. Now that the Minister of Public Works and Government Services is the real defence minister, will she review the statement of requirements and for the sake of both taxpayers and the defence of Canada finally launch a competitive, open bidding process?

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

Mr. Speaker, the member knows well that my responsibility as Minister of Public Works and Government Services is to ensure that the process is followed. The Auditor General found flaws in the cost estimates put forward by the Department of National Defence and recommended that new cost estimates be provided. We are going further than that. We are asking for an independent evaluation and validation of those cost estimates. We have hired KPMG to do that and we look forward to those cost estimates being made public to parliamentarians.

Foreign Investment

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, trade with China is important and something that we fostered with Liberal prime ministers, who led trade missions to China to secure business for Canadians on fair terms. However, on Friday the Chinese ambassador seemed to imply that the Nexen deal was a condition for everything else. That being the case, how does the Minister of International Trade intend to protect Canadian resources for the benefit of Canadians, adding value and jobs in Canada? And how does the minister intend to ensure that Canadian businesses have equivalent rights in China?