Mr. Chair, I ask the President of the Treasury Board if the bill is presented in its usual form.
(On clause 2)
Lost his last election, in 2011, with 36% of the vote.
Supplementary Estimates (A) October 28th, 2003
Mr. Chair, I ask the President of the Treasury Board if the bill is presented in its usual form.
(On clause 2)
Supply October 28th, 2003
Madam Speaker, I wonder if the member could comment on the recurring theme that we have heard today.
We heard of all the technical merits of getting on with the job and the limits of Bill C-20. There seems to be something deeper here about the ability of the Liberal government to manage social control legislation and the deeper philosophical malaise and almost fear to tread into that kind of moral code.
The Criminal Code itself is a grand piece of work which in essence is moral legislation. We are legislating morality when we apply the Criminal Code. The Liberal ideology seems to fall short when we get into this kind of social policy. It seems to be the fad in the political air that we are going to deal with the democratic deficit but Liberals seem to go all over the map when we try to deal with the ethical deficit. We heard that today in question period for example.
Could the member comment on the deeper philosophical inadequacy of Liberal ideology that is reflected time and again when it comes to this kind of social policy and social standards?
Supply October 28th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, we had to endure the sound and fury of the justice minister this morning. He cannot understand why his proposal, Bill C-20, falls so far short of what the country needs.
I think that our tough questions are an affront to his career and leadership aspirations. We saw him twist himself into a pretzel to justify Liberal ideology under which the country endures, perhaps even suffers.
The pathetic minister bleats virtue while under the same Liberal administration, in their years of power, crime and tragedies have continued for families. In fact, it has expanded. In view of these poor results, it would look like the Liberal government in some sections is secretly compromised.
I would talk specifically about the child porn situation. It worsens and this is the Liberal legacy of inaction. Divorce and family law is a national tragedy for families. Liberals could not deliver upon the masterful work For the Sake of the Children report and the hurt for children continues.
Street prostitution is a stain on our communities. For years now the laws allow easy access for juveniles to get into the whole exploitive sex trade process. This is the Liberal record of inaction for our children.
Last, there is sexual relations with children, the age of consent and the legal problem, and the Liberal record of failure to protect the vulnerable in our neighbourhoods.
I am talking about what the minister said. He hires Department of Justice officials and seeks their advice. Unfortunately, he gets very poor advice. We are saying that Canada needs moral and administrative leadership.
Ethics October 28th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, many ministers are admitting to very limited knowledge today.
For the minister of the Treasury Board, the author and defender of ethics in this House, the minister who writes all the rules for everybody else, has the minister, the President of the Treasury Board, ever received undeclared gifts in excess of $200?
Public Service October 6th, 2003
Citizen satisfaction, Mr. Speaker. Treasury Board has a lot of rules and guidelines on the shelf, but there is one rule over there that seems to be missing and that is transparency and the public's right to know.
The access to information office is overworked because government is too secret. Even the Auditor General says we do not need more rules; we just need transparency. When is the Treasury Board going to create proper transparency in government, just putting it all on the Internet for every single taxpayer to read it?
Public Service October 6th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the President of the Treasury Board. The minister said public servants should change their mentality about concealing information, but the government has had 10 years to make things transparent. Instead, it has spent 10 years making it more secret. The access to information office is backlogged with requests.
Why did it take getting caught for the minister to look at changing the rules?
Treasury Board October 1st, 2003
Mr. Speaker, I hope, for implementation, the President of the Treasury Board has an internal policy memo for whistleblower protection.
The government House leader, way back in 1991, said “Public servants must be able to report about illegal or unethical behaviour that they encounter on the job without fear or reprisal”. That was 1991.
The Auditor General says that there was a reign of terror for employees and the minister's memo policy absolutely failed. That is all we have.
Instead of another research paper or another study group, will the government unequivocally commit to comprehensive, system wide whistleblower legislation?
Treasury Board October 1st, 2003
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the President of the Treasury Board.
The Auditor General reports absolute system failure for public employees. In fact, she reports that the privacy commissioner abused funds, abused his employees and abused Parliament itself.
In view of this disaster, what steps has the President of the Treasury Board taken to get the money back, protect employees from abuse and protect Parliament from contempt?
Members of Parliament September 25th, 2003
Madam Speaker, recently we had votes which were not administrative but reflected basic societal structure and had moral implications for many in my community.
My electoral pledge requires me to engage the local marketplace of ideas and ultimately be guided by community consensus. That is our Canadian Alliance commitment to grassroots representative democracy.
We believe that a high level of citizen participation in the democratic consultation process is vital to ensuring the legitimacy of Parliament. MPs must ensure major issues receive a full and fair public hearing so that an informed democratic decision can be made by the community. Where an MP finds that a clear consensus can be obtained, it is his or her responsibility to vote accordingly over party or personal view.
I urge all parliamentarians to be better representatives and aspire to the higher standard of the Canadian Alliance Party.
Parliament of Canada Act September 22nd, 2003
Madam Speaker, without undermining the independence of the judiciary, there are review mechanisms for removing senior judges and there is a kind of an old boy's network. I have been involved in the removing of judges at the provincial level because of alcohol problems and so on. It is often done privately through supervisory judges and so on. There are systems, but certainly it is something to look at and we do have the formal procedure, of course, of bringing judges and their record before this House and that does exist.
However, as far as the general access to information, the leadership comes from the Prime Minister. Everything should be open unless the case could be made for national security reasons or traditional cabinet secrecy or whatever that something should be private. In fact, the Access to Information Act, if things were running correctly, should rarely ever have to be used because by policy, by the direction of the government and the Prime Minister, everything is on the public record and one would have to make the case in order to keep it private. That is how the public service should operate.