Debates of Oct. 24th, 2013

Ethics

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, senators' travel expenses go through the roof during federal general elections, a whopping $1.5 million of taxpayers' money, which the Prime Minister says he is concerned about.

If he is so concerned about taxpayers' money, why did he join with the Liberal Party yesterday to vote against an NDP motion that would have at least restricted the ability of senators to use taxpayers' money to help political parties in their campaigns.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Election expenses are reported by the parties, Mr. Speaker. The reality is that parliamentarians, people who are in legislatures, have partisan views and partisan affiliation. We expect them to be transparent about those things.

The solution is not to have senators or anybody else pretend they are non-partisan. It is to have them elected so they are accountable to the Canadian people.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

How is that going, the elected Senate, Mr. Speaker?

The Conservatives have had a bill about Senate reform on the books for two years. How many times have they called it? Zero. So much for their credibility on reforming the Senate.

The Prime Minister told the House on February 13 that he had personally reviewed Pamela Wallin's expenses and vouched for them.

Was the Prime Minister misleading Canadians, or did he not understand a simple report like the rest of them claim? Did he not understand that most of that report was about partisan political activities for him and the Conservative Party?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the member knows very well that what I said was that all of the expenses of Senator Wallin and indeed all of the expenses of the Senate would be examined and appropriate action would be taken. Those examinations of the case of Senator Wallin have been taken and the Senate is now trying to take appropriate action, as it should.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

And the cheque is in the mail, Mr. Speaker.

They write this stuff down in Parliament. It was February 13 and Canadians can go and check it.

How many senators participated in election activities with this Prime Minister, and who paid for their travel? We want a full report. It is taxpayer money, and Canadians deserve to know for a change.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party reports on its spending during elections.

There are rules in place for reporting election expenses. That is what the Conservative Party does. I wish the NDP were just as transparent with some of the union expenditure it gets—

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, how many is a few?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, Mr. Wright has been very clear on that in his court filings. He has been very clear on all of the facts. They are in black and white. Mr. Wright says very clearly that the decision was taken with his money. It was his decision and his alone, and he admits that this was the wrong course of action. He takes full responsibility for that decision. He is being held accountable, as it should be.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is the cover-up that transformed Mike Duffy's scandal into the Prime Minister's scandal. It is bad enough for the Prime Minister's chief of staff to try to buy a parliamentarian's complicity for $90,000, but the cover-up did not end there. It was elaborate. It began last December. There were gag orders, a communications plan, threats, intimidation, a plot to sandbag the Deloitte audit and corrupt an official Senate report.

What questions did the Prime Minister ask his staff about the execution of this scheme?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the relevant fact here is that on February 13, when Senator Duffy approached the Prime Minister to try to justify his inappropriate expenses, the Prime Minister was very clear to Senator Duffy that he should repay any inappropriate expenses he had. It was very clear.

At the same time, contrast this to the lack of leadership of the Liberal leader who is prepared to invite back disgraced Liberal senator Mac Harb into his caucus, or the failed leadership of the leader of the NDP who waited 17 years to tell authorities that he was offered a bribe.

Canadians know who they can trust with public finances, and that is this Prime Minister.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, obfuscation will not work. The cover-up developed over a period of months. It was committed to paper and put in the hands of the Prime Minister's director of issues management. At least a dozen of the Prime Minister's most senior officials were involved, including lawyers.

As the plot thickened around Mr. Duffy, there was huge publicity about all the trouble dogging the Prime Minister's hand-picked star senator and Mr. Wright. Yet the Prime Minister did not ask a single question, nor was he told that his answers to Canadians in May and June were false. How is that plausible? How could the staff be so incompetent?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, again, the Prime Minister was very clear. On February 13 he was approached by Senator Duffy. He told the senator that he had to pay back any inappropriate expenses that he had incurred. At the same time, the government has put forward and the Senate has put forward a number of accountability measures with respect to senators' expenses. Right now in the Senate we have further measures to protect the Canadian taxpayers, and it is the Liberal Party that is blocking those attempts to see that Canadian taxpayers are protected. That is the lack of leadership that we have come to expect from the Liberal Party, and of course we always expect that from the NDP.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians hold the Prime Minister accountable for the corrupt behaviour of his staff and the people he appoints to public office. He gave the orders to fix the Duffy problem. That unleashed an elaborate cover-up, illegal conduct described in writing. It involved every important person in the Prime Minister's entourage. It went on for months, but we are asked to believe that the Prime Minister was completely oblivious. He was told nothing. He asked nothing.

What sort of mentality prevails in the Prime Minister's inner circle that led all of them to believe that such corruption was okay?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister just said, on February 13, he instructed Senator Duffy to pay back any inappropriate expenses that he had incurred. Mr. Duffy, in fact, went on TV and claimed that he had done just that by mortgaging his home.

We hear this from a member of the Liberal Party. We are still looking for the $40 million that had gone missing.

What Canadians know is this: When it comes to respecting taxpayers' dollars, they can trust this Prime Minister and this party to make sure that those dollars are respected.

Employment Insurance

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in 2006, the Conservative Party's election platform indicated that a Conservative government would ensure that government whistleblowers were protected. However, when Sylvie Therrien reported that there were fraud quotas for EI investigators she was dismissed.

It is so common to hear the Conservatives say one thing and do exactly the opposite that I have to ask, are there still any Conservatives with principles to keep the promise made to all the Sylvie Therriens in the public service?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, the decision to dismiss this individual was made by department officials. We do support their decision.

Service Canada officials have used the same system to find and stop false EI claims since 1993. That is in order to ensure that Canadians who have paid into the EI system will have it there when they need it.

This also gives me the opportunity to talk about our government's job creation. Unemployment rates are at their lowest since September 2008. That is good news for Canadians.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is rather odd that public servants have to live with all the bad decisions.

Sylvie Therrien did the right thing by blowing the whistle on EI benefit quotas. As the Conservatives said before they were corrupted by power, quotas are a bad practice. Not only did the Conservative platform seek to protect whistleblowers, but it even mentioned rewarding them. This just underlines the hypocrisy of this government.

Were the whistleblowers involved in the Liberal sponsorship scandal the only ones who deserved protection or does this protection apply to all whistleblowers?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, Service Canada has been clear. There are no quotas. Service Canada has also been clear that the processes have been in place since 1993.

Shame on the member for making these comments about Service Canada officials and our officials, who are doing their jobs to ensure that the integrity of EI remains.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP has been sounding the alarm for months about the Conservatives' attack on seasonal industries. Now the government is finally admitting the changes made to EI for people on fishing incomes are causing hardship. In one case in particular, the cuts were more than 50%, so it was less than $200 per week.

Will the minister acknowledge this mistake, stand up, and apologize to these fishing families and recognize the fact that these changes need to be put on hold?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, actually, that technical error is being corrected in the BIA act, so I would expect the member to stand up when the vote comes and support the budget implementation act to correct it.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, undoubtedly I will be up on my feet again, bringing other examples of what the government is doing to working people to their attention.

Let us talk for a second again about Sylvie. There was once a time when the Conservative government said that it would protect whistleblowers. That time has clearly long passed. Sylvie Therrien blew the whistle on the quota system set up by the government for EI and blew the whistle on their home inspections, and the government fired her.

Will the minister explain why it is that the government has now gone to war with whistleblowers instead of supporting them, standing up behind them, for what it is they are bringing to its attention?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the decision to dismiss this person was made by officials at the department. We support that decision.

I would go back, though, to the member's assertion about the budget implementation bill and suggest that he actually read it. It was very clear from his previous question that he has no idea what is in the BIA. He has no idea how it is benefiting Canadians and benefiting Canadians in his region.

It is shameful. The member needs to read it before he asks a question.

Foreign Affairs

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, every year around the world, millions of girls as young as eight or nine years old are forced into marriage. Some suggest the number could be as high as 14 million a year. This is utterly wrong, and we have a duty to say so.

Through the maternal, newborn, and child health initiative, Canada has committed nearly $3 billion over five years to help women and children lead longer, healthier lives. This is in addition to the almost $14 million in support the country has provided toward ending sexual violence and encouraging the full participation of women in emerging democracies.

Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs please update the House on this government's efforts to halt the practice of early, child, and forced marriage around the world?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, our government has made it a priority to fight the scourge of child, early, and forced marriage. This is why Canada, today, will introduce the first ever stand-alone resolution at the United Nations General Assembly against child, early, and forced marriage. This resolution calls for the protection of these children and calls on the General Assembly to take action to bring an end to this barbaric practice.

I am also pleased to announce today that Canada will contribute an additional $5 million to fight early and child marriage around the world.