House of Commons Hansard #259 of the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was witnesses.

Topics

EthicsOral Questions

2:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order, please. Order. This is taking up a lot of time.

The hon. member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley has a supplemental question.

EthicsOral Questions

2:35 p.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the winners of the Governor General's awards, the artists who are watching here today, appreciate the minister's total disdain for artists working in our country.

Now that a cover-up orchestrated by the Prime Minister's own chief of staff has been exposed, maybe showing Canadians a little contrition would go a long way and stop the baseless attacks and sad attempts to try to change the channel on their own corruption.

The email from Mike Duffy said he would stay quiet on direct orders from the Prime Minister's Office. Let us be clear: that came with a $90,000 cheque attached.

For 16 days Canadians have waited for answers. When are they going to get the answers they deserve?

EthicsOral Questions

2:35 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the arts, I am very pleased to be the minister responsible for the arts and a member of this government, the only government in the G8 that increased funding for arts and culture during the recession. We are the only one, the only government.

We have increased funding for the Canada Council for the Arts and created three new national museums. We have created the Canada media fund. We have gone forward with the copyright protection act to protect our musicians. Our government has done more for arts and culture than any government in history.

What is appalling is New Democrats putting forward a bill of artists' resale rights and pretending to stand up for artists when all they are doing is standing up for their right to avoid paying taxes.

EthicsOral Questions

2:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order.

Order, please. The running commentary during questions and answers is not helping and it is certainly eating up a lot of time. I ask members to come to order.

The hon. member for Toronto Centre.

EthicsOral Questions

2:35 p.m.

Liberal

Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I thought the attack by the minister on the member for Jeanne-Le Ber was one of the nastiest attacks on an individual in the House that I have seen in my time. I have never seen anything like it—

EthicsOral Questions

2:35 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

EthicsOral Questions

2:35 p.m.

An hon. member

What a low blow.

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

NDP

Jamie Nicholls NDP Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC

That is unparliamentary.

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

NDP

Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC

Shame on you, James.

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Liberal

Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, let me ask the minister this simple question: is it the position of the Government of Canada that it had just cause to fire Nigel Wright from his position? Is that its position?

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages

Mr. Speaker, Nigel Wright resigned. He took sole responsibility, which is exactly appropriate, given the facts of the matter.

It was not an attack on any individual member of Parliament. This is an attack on members of Parliament who put forward legislation to avoid having to pay taxes themselves. That is what happened here. When it comes to defending—

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order, please. The hon. Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages has the floor. He has about 10 seconds left.

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Conservative

James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC

Mr. Speaker, again on the issue of defending the arts, I am very proud to be a member of this government, which has done more to defend and protect the interests of Canadian artists than any government before in this country's history. Increasing the funding for the Canada Council for the Arts, standing up for artists on the international—

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

The hon. member for Toronto Centre has the floor.

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Liberal

Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, through all the character assassination, the minister has not answered this simple question. It is a very important question because it applies to the question of what rights and entitlements Mr. Wright had as a result of his choosing to resign on Sunday after his misdemeanours were discovered on the Wednesday before. It took the government five days to make up its mind as to how it was going to handle it.

Let me ask the minister one more time and give him one more chance. Did the Government of Canada have cause to fire Mr. Wright, yes or no?

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister said, he did not approve of this. He would not have approved of this. Indeed, Nigel Wright took sole responsibility because he acted alone. What he did was not in the interests of Canadian taxpayers and it was not a responsible decision. The Prime Minister did not support what he did and would not support what he had done. It was the wrong thing for him to do.

With regard to the legal questions, that is why independent authorities are looking at this, and they will get the answers that taxpayers deserve, just as we continue to seek the answers on Liberal senators taking $1.7 million and hiding it from Revenue Canada. We deserve answers on that as well.

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Liberal

Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I would like the government to table all the documents related to Mr. Wright's appointment and the conditions of his employment, because otherwise, there can be no explanation for the government's position. It took the government five days to realize there was a problem. They did not have a moral problem, but rather a political problem, which is why they decided to allow Mr. Wright to resign. They did not fire Mr. Wright. That is the government's position at present—

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

EthicsOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages

Mr. Speaker, it did not take five days. It happened as soon as the Prime Minister learned that Mr. Wright had written a personal cheque. The Prime Minister made that information public immediately. That is a fact.

However, that is not the case with the Liberal Party, considering that a Liberal senator is hiding $1.7 million from taxpayers who have to pay their taxes. She is hiding that money in an offshore account. The Liberals need to be transparent about that money and need to be accountable to Canadian taxpayers.

Government ExpendituresOral Questions

May 30th, 2013 / 2:40 p.m.

NDP

Mathieu Ravignat NDP Pontiac, QC

Mr. Speaker, I have a question about yet another Deloitte audit into Conservative misuse of public funds. Former employees of Atomic Energy Canada are blowing the whistle on bid-rigging, inappropriate gifts and the misuse of public money. These whistle-blowers say evidence of wrongdoing provoked a major audit of AECL's procurement in 2008, but it appears that it was covered up.

Is it true that such an audit was conducted by Deloitte? If so, will the government now release it?

Government ExpendituresOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

Cypress Hills—Grasslands Saskatchewan

Conservative

David Anderson ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and for the Canadian Wheat Board

Mr. Speaker, AECL is an independent crown corporation, and the board of AECL is responsible for dealing with these matters. It is my understanding that the matter is subject to an ongoing legal proceeding, so we cannot comment on it.

Government ExpendituresOral Questions

2:40 p.m.

NDP

Mathieu Ravignat NDP Pontiac, QC

Mr. Speaker, this is another example of this government's lack of transparency. It has put over $1 billion into Atomic Energy of Canada Limited over the past few years, including $362 million this year alone. If there is wrongdoing within this organization, then Canadians deserve to know.

Can the minister tell us when exactly he heard about the bid rigging at AECL and can he tell us why Canadians are just learning about this now?

Government ExpendituresOral Questions

2:45 p.m.

Cypress Hills—Grasslands Saskatchewan

Conservative

David Anderson ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and for the Canadian Wheat Board

Mr. Speaker, as I said, these matters are the responsibility of the board of directors of AECL. AECL was an independent crown corporation. It has now been sold to the private sector, but it is my understanding that it is subject to an ongoing legal proceeding and we cannot comment on it.

Government AppointmentsOral Questions

2:45 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, while the Conservatives are making cuts to employment insurance and 6 in 10 unemployed workers are not receiving benefits, the Conservatives are handing out gifts to their friends. Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency are full of friends of the Minister of National Defence. Canadians are the ones paying the salaries of these friends and those same Canadians are having a hard time getting employment insurance benefits. They have the right to know the status of the investigation into these appointments.

Will the minister update us on the status of the investigation into the hiring of the Minister of National Defence's friends?