Debates of Oct. 31st, 2017

Ethics

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, as I have confirmed to the House before, I have reported all of my assets to the Ethics Commissioner, 100% of my assets. I hold no controlled assets whatsoever in any of my holdings or the holdings of my family.

What I can say is that rather than focusing on my finances, it would be nice if the members opposite focused on the finances of Canadians. That is what we are focused on. To the member for Milton, we are focused on her constituents and their situation, helping them with an increase in the Canada child benefit, for example, and helping them with an increase in the working income tax benefit, so they are better off.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. I do not think the House constantly needs to hear from members who do not have the floor when someone is asking or answering a question. I would ask members to try to restrain themselves.

The hon. member for Milton.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what we did this summer when we brought to light the fact that small business owners in Canada were being called tax cheats by this Minister of Finance. For two full years, this minister drove the economic policy that benefited not only his personal wealth but also the wealth of his friends and his family. Who knows how many other policies this minister was part of and implemented directly benefit his holdings. When will the minister quit his game of hide and seek, come clean, and tell the House the contents of numbered companies 1446977 and 2135042?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, what do we know right now? We know that 21 members on the other side of the House—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. Most members of all parties are able to sit through question period without reacting to things they do not like to hear, and that is bound to happen around here. Members, I know, can behave in a restrained manner and can control themselves, so I encourage them to do so.

The hon. Minister of Finance has the floor.

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, what we know is that 21 members on the other side of the House have private corporations. We also know that the members on the other side of the House argued vociferously against the changes that we wanted to make to make sure that our tax system was fair. Therefore, while we were working on behalf of Canadians, working to make sure that we could lower tax rates on small businesses across this country, they were focused on the advantages that 1.7% of those privately incorporated individuals might have. While they protect their interests, we will protect the interests of Canadians.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I have asked members a few times—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. I know members would sooner be trick or treating, but we need to get on with things.

The hon. member for Carleton.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

The minister wants to know what is in my company. I am one of the 21 he just listed. It is a rental property. How hard was that?

What is in 2254165 Ontario Inc.?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I know members will want to hear another question, probably by the same member, so they would want to be quiet to hear the answer to this question if they want to hear the next one.

The hon. Minister of Finance.

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said, all of my assets are disclosed and none of my assets are controlled assets. It is important to make sure that we disclose everything to the Ethics Commissioner. What I would like to know again, as I said, is whether that is actually happening on the other side of the House, including whether the member for Calgary Rocky Ridge has disclosed everything in 638484 Alberta Ltd., or whether the member for Fort McMurray—Cold Lake has disclosed everything in 615783 Alberta Ltd. at DBK Holdings.

These are questions that are quite interesting, but I will say that for me what is more important is that we actually think about what is going on for the constituents in those ridings, whether they are actually seeing the advantages that we are trying—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

The hon. member for Carleton.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, while the minister was speaking, I had an opportunity to confirm with the 21 members in the caucus to whom he referred. They have all confirmed that none of them owns stocks in a company that he or she regulates. Only the finance minister has that distinction. Therefore, can he just tell us, what is he holding in 2254165 Ontario Inc.?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I can only assume that the continuing obsession with my personal finances is because the members on the opposite side do not want to think about what is actually happening for their own constituents. If they went out and knocked on doors, what they would find is that 450,000-plus people now have jobs who did not have jobs two years ago. They would find that we have the lowest rate of unemployment in a decade. They would find that our economy is doing well and that people in their ridings are finding themselves and their families in a better situation. That is what we are going to continue to focus on. That is what we were elected to do.

Canadian Heritage

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we now know that Netflix is not the only digital giant from Silicon Valley getting special treatment. Google had 37 meetings with members of the government, Microsoft 35 meetings, and Amazon almost 100 meetings. Microsoft hired a former Liberal Party director, and worse, the heritage minister's own chief of staff used to work for Google. Not only is the Canadian industry playing by a different set of rules, where is its Facetime with the Minister?

I have a simple question. When will the minister get to work for Canadian companies instead of just American ones?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, we have a chance to have great creators in this country and we need to stand up for them. While Canadians have access to these platforms and they are a part of our everyday lives, we need to be able to present the views of creators when discussing these platforms. That is exactly what we did.

That being said, we had a chance to meet with artists across the country and to hear from 30,000 Canadians. We have had more meetings with the Writers Guild, with the CMPA, with CIMA, and in general with ACTRA than any other platforms.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Clearly they are selling out our culture, Mr. Speaker.

The curtain is being pulled back on the snarl of lobbies funded by California and Silicon Valley. When we think of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, and all these people, we understand why the minister of heritage is now talking about the business model for our culture. We naturally have no opportunity to hear from the cultural coalition, and the minister has not responded to the letter from the Quebec government, which was sent a month ago. That is pathetic.

Microsoft hired a former Liberal Party director and the heritage minister hired a former Google executive as her chief of staff.

Are conflicts of interest contagious?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague mentioned the coalition. I had the opportunity to meet with its representatives and also to meet with different stakeholders on various occasions.

I am always pleased to meet with industry stakeholders, as I did last Sunday, when I attended the ADISQ gala with my colleague. It is also important to meet with representatives of digital platforms because instead of hiding from this reality we realize that these platforms are part of our lives.

It is our role, as members of government, to present the views of artists and our creators to ensure that there is Canadian content on digital platforms.

Ethics

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner is raising new concerns about the finance minister's conflict of interest. Canadians have lost confidence in him because he hid his Morneau Shepell shares in a numbered company in Alberta and failed to disclose his offshore corporation in France. Canadians are wondering just how many more assets and conflicts of interest he is hiding in his other numbered companies.

I ask the finance minister this. What assets is he hiding in 2254165 Ontario Inc.?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I can do this Bingo game too. What about 615783 Alberta, 782615 Ontario, 1149976 Ontario? Or, I could actually focus on the important numbers: 300,000 children lifted out of poverty; a 9% small business tax rate as opposed to 11% when the previous government was in power; or maybe we could think about the fact that we have 450,000 new jobs, or perhaps the 3.7% growth in the economy over the last year.

These are the kind of numbers that matter. They are the numbers that matter to Canadians.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is shocking that the finance minister cannot see the difference between a member of Parliament owning shares and a member of cabinet who owned pension shares and advocated for and introduced Bill C-27, which is pension reform legislation. It is a completely different story. He is the one in the conflict of interest. No one on this side has introduced legislation that would put us in a conflict of interest.

Will the finance minister come clean and tell Canadians what else he is hiding in 2070689 Ontario Ltd.?