Debates of May 31st, 2013

Ethics

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

Mr. Speaker, clearly, the Liberals are attempting to divert attention from the reality that they have in their Senate caucus a member who is a beneficiary on a $1.7 million off-shore account, an account that was never reported and was kept entirely secret. The Liberal leader has known about this for over a month. He has done absolutely nothing. Why does he not stand up and show some leadership and demand accountability from his senator?

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives continue to say that Nigel Wright wrote a personal cheque for $90,000, but how can they know that for sure if they did not see the cheque?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has already answered the question, and Mr. Wright has answered very clearly that he takes sole personal responsibility for his decision. He offered his resignation, which has been accepted.

By contrast, on the other side, the NDP leader kept secret an offered bribe. Bribes are criminal offences. He kept a criminal offence secret for 17 years. Imagine how we could have avoided the corruption in Laval and Montreal, if he had the ability to speak out about what he knew?

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have two simple questions.

On what basis did the Prime Minister assume that Mike Duffy had even agreed to repay his expenses? Who informed the Prime Minister of that?

These are straightforward questions, and they deserve a straightforward answer.

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

Mr. Speaker, the answer is simple.

The Prime Minister has always said that all inappropriate expenses would have to be repaid. He said that to Mr. Duffy directly in February, and he has been saying it openly and publicly throughout Canada for a long time. That is the position that we took and that we will continue to take.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in the course of a typical day, how many times, on average, does the Prime Minister speak with his chief of staff?

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

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Wright took sole responsibility for his decision. He resigned and the Prime Minister accepted his resignation.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport stated that Nigel Wright issued the cheque because, and I quote, "we didn't believe taxpayers should have to pay the cost and Mr. Duffy was not in a position to pay them himself”.

Who does he mean by “we”?

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

Mr. Speaker, we all believe that any inappropriate expenses should be reimbursed. All Canadians believe it, our caucus believes it, everyone believes it. I hope the New Democrats believe it as well.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we know that the Prime Minister's Office was informed of the $90,000 cheque on May 14. So who in the Prime Minister's Office was told on May 14, and why does the Prime Minister say he was not informed?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister became informed after the matter was in the media, and he took action accordingly.

Now the question is how can we work to reform the Senate to ensure this never happens again.

We have put forward 11 tough new rules to require accountability in the Senate, we have introduced 7 bills to reform the Senate to make it elected and we have said that if the Senate will not be reformed then it should be eliminated.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, simple questions demand simple answers and we simply do not get them.

Of the 15 senators who spent the most on travel during the reporting quarter for the last election, 10 are Liberal and 5 are Conservative. Does the government believe it was right for its senators to be receiving salary and expenses from public funds while campaigning for the Conservative Party during the last election?

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

Mr. Speaker, any and all expenses for the Conservative Party of Canada during a campaign have been paid by the party and reported accordingly to Elections Canada. That is how the rules work, and we follow all of those rules.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Speaker, then Conservative Senator Mike Duffy campaigned in the Northwest Territories during the last election and was double- or triple-dipping on expenses.

Why did the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages say yesterday that the Conservative Party campaign was financed by Conservative funds, when that is clearly not true?

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

Mr. Speaker, the reason the minister said that is because it is true. The Conservative Party pays all of its campaign funds out of party funds, and we report those accordingly to Elections Canada.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives keep saying that Nigel Wright's payment to Mike Duffy is above board because, when he was working for the Prime Minister and his salary came out of the taxpayers' pockets, Mr. Wright gave a personal gift to pay off Mr. Duffy's fraud.

Do the Conservatives think that this payment to Mike Duffy was legal?

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

Mr. Speaker, we already answered that question.

An independent investigation will determine whether or not all this was legal.

However, is it legal to offer bribes? No, that is fraud, which is a crime. The NDP leader should have reported it to police, but he hid it for 17 years. That is outrageous.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question could not have been more straightforward. The answer, however, was not so straightforward. Perhaps the Conservatives do not want to answer, perhaps they cannot answer, or perhaps they did not understand the question. I will make it even easier.

Was this payment to Mike Duffy legal, yes or no?

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

Mr. Speaker, that is up to the independent investigation to determine.

The NDP leader knew about an attempted bribe. He was offered a bribe. He hid that information for 17 years. He should have said something, he could have said something, but he did not. That is outrageous.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government is marked by cover-up after cover-up: election day fraud in 200 ridings, and the Conservatives will not co-operate with Elections Canada; obstructing the Parliamentary Budget Office to hide real costs; running wasteful ads about programs that do not even exist yet, and then refusing to release the cost Canadians paid. Canadians have had enough.

Why do the Conservatives think Canadians will believe this is not yet another cover-up if they will not release a single piece of paper, not even Nigel Wright's cancelled cheque?

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

Mr. Speaker, I find it amazing any time the Liberals talk about accountability, but to choose this particular member as their spokesperson is really a new level of audacity.

This is a member who was found guilty of illegal robocalls in the last election. He made the calls. He gave a false name and phone number, and he was caught. He was the first person in Canadian history to ever be convicted of illegal robocalls.

Why can he not stand and explain himself for that?

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Speaker, if the member would like to talk about guilty robocalls, maybe he should turn around and speak to the member for Wild Rose behind him, who was fined $14,000.

Perhaps the member would like to look all around himself in the Conservative Party, which was fined $78,000.

Perhaps the member for Nepean—Carleton would like to look in the mirror. He will not like what he sees, because the scandals and affairs of the government keep building up: the F-35 affair, the in and out scandal, the Jaffer affair, the Penashue scandal, the Carson affair, the Peterborough illegal donations scandal, the Bev Oda affair, the Chuck Cadman scandal.

Why?

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

Mr. Speaker, I could spend all day talking about the era of Liberal scandal, the missing $40 million the Liberals still have not repaid, but I would rather talk about the fantastic economic growth numbers we saw today: 2.5% in economic growth, 6.5% growth in exports, and seven consecutive quarters of economic growth. That growth means jobs, 900,000 net new jobs with 75% of them in the private sector and 90% of them full time.

We are creating jobs; we are building this economy; we are leading this country.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as the scandals continue to pile up, so do the government's attempts to cover them up.

We all remember the fraudulent calls in the Mount Royal riding, the in and out scandal, the ministers found in conflicts of interest, the Bev Oda affair, the controversial appointments at the Old Port of Montreal, the Bruce Carson affair, the wasteful spending on partisan advertising, and of course the Arthur Porter affair.

What makes the government think that Canadians will believe anything it says, unless it releases all documents related to the Duffy-Wright affair?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I just said, Canadians trust us because we are showing real leadership and we are getting the job done. Economic growth, for instance, has been much greater than we expected. We created 900,000 jobs and cut the deficit in half. We are creating jobs and leading the country in the right direction and we will continue to do so.