Michel Gauthier

[Business of Supply, February 8th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I accept the amendment proposed by the NDP and I agree to debate it.

[Aerospace Industry, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, if demanding justice and fairness means dividing Canada, well, draw your own conclusions.

Canadian automobile workers are publicly calling for the Quebec ministers in this government to intervene so that the same measures put in place to protect the automobile industry in Ontario are used when it is time to protect the aerospace industry.

What are those ministers doing?

[Aerospace Industry, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the Boeing file, the Minister of Industry affirmed that the Quebec aeronautical industry could easily get its share of contracts and that the government would ensure that the contracts resulted in some good technology transfers.

Is it naiveté that causes the Minister of Industry to talk this way and to think that Boeing, all of a sudden, by chance and of its own free will, would prefer to give contracts to its Quebec competitors rather than its subsidiaries and partners in the rest of Canada? Is this naiveté or bad faith?

[Lloyd Francis, January 30th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, as many of us, I did not have the privilege of knowing Mr. Francis personally, a man who had a long and successful career here in Parliament. However, one thing struck me most of all when I looked at his bio to prepare this tribute, and it was the number of elections in which he took part throughout his career, some of which he won and some of which he lost.

It does not take a long experience in politics to know how much courage it takes to go through such a long, successful and sometimes disappointing political career. He did a wonderful job, or so I am told, in the various parliamentary roles he was called upon to assume, including that of chief whip for his party, which is not an easy job. Those who are here know that. He was even named Speaker of the House of Commons, a most important position in Parliament. When a Speaker of the House of Commons passes on, it is just fitting to reflect on his contribution to parliamentary debates and to the issues of justice and equity among all parliamentarians. The only comments we hear about Mr. Francis are that he was a good man and a fair man and someone who was reasonable in applying the rules of the House of Commons.

That is why, on behalf of my political party, I want to offer my most sincere condolences to Mr. Francis' family and tell them that his name will remain forever in our memories and in the political annals of Canada and of the Parliament of Canada.

[Aerospace Industry, January 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, how can a Minister of Industry come and tell us here in the House of Commons that he is not interfering in a $3.4 billion contract that he handed out without a call for tenders?

He chose Boeing and told it that it could develop where it wanted. That is not what we would call responsible. It is irresponsible and that is not what Quebeckers expected of him.

[Aerospace Industry, January 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, we will no longer have to pay for Canada's planes, we will buy our own and have them made where we see fit.

The Minister of Industry and the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities have refused to stand up to protect Quebec's aerospace industry.

By refusing to impose conditions, does the government not realize it is leaving it up to Boeing to use our money and decide for itself where aerospace development will take place in Canada over the next few years? This is unacceptable.

[National Defence, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, official U.S. reports list the main defects of these planes and the U.S. wishes to terminate its contract.

Does the Minister of National Defence realize that he is no longer a lobbyist and that his job is not to maximize a company's profit at the expense of taxpayers, but to make the best investment with taxpayers' money?

That is his work. Above all we must never repeat the error already made when we spent millions of dollars to buy old submarines that never worked properly.

[National Defence, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence is about to spend $4.9 billion for aircraft that the Pentagon no longer wants because they have so many defects.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of National Defence tell us that if Canada wishes to purchase these planes for $188 million, or three times the cost to Americans, who paid between $44 million and $67 million per plane, it is because the Lockheed Martin officials declared that they have fixed the main defects of these planes?

We are about to pay three times the price for planes that the Americans no longer want.

[Maher Arar Inquiry, December 11th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to give the minister an opportunity, since he likes my questions. I have a question for which he has the answer and I would like him to give us the answer here today.

Maher Arar and every member of this House all want to know who in the RCMP gave the Americans the information that led to Maher Arar's deportation to Syria? The minister knows the answer to this question, and I would like him to tell us here today.

[Maher Arar Inquiry, December 11th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, Maher Arar feels that the RCMP commissioner's resignation is not enough and that certain pieces of information must now be made public.

Will the Prime Minister, in the name of fairness to Mr. Arar, promise to make public the names of the people responsible for the media leaks concerning Mr. Arar, particularly the people who continued to allow the leaks, which discredited Mr. Arar, even while Justice O'Connor was conducting the inquiry?