Lost his last election, in 2006, with 33% of the vote.
Indian Affairs February 4th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, how can anybody take this minister seriously after this breach of confidentiality? The minister says that there is an investigation under way and a government employee is doing the investigating.
This smells more like damage control and whitewash than it does a proper and sincere attempt to get at the truth. Will the minister commit here and now to calling in the RCMP for a proper investigation?
Indian Affairs February 4th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, eight months ago the minister of Indian affairs invited aboriginal Canadians to write her personally about their concerns. She promised confidentiality.
When Bruce Starlight wrote, that promise was broken and the letter was leaked directly to Chief Roy Whitney, the subject of the letter.
Yesterday the minister admitted that this may be a breach of the oath of secrecy. My question is, who did the breaching? Was it the minister and her office or was it Roy Whitney's golfing buddy, the Prime Minister?
Aboriginal Affairs February 3rd, 1998
Mr. Speaker, all we get from this government is investigation after investigation and excuse after excuse.
Can the minister tell aboriginal Canadians who have been betrayed by this action why they should ever trust her or this government again after this action has been taken against them?
Aboriginal Affairs February 3rd, 1998
Mr. Speaker, less than a year ago, the minister of Indian affairs invited aboriginal Canadians to write her with their concerns. Bruce Starlight of the Tsuu T'ina Nation took her at her word and wrote her a letter. Within days that letter was in the hands of Chief Roy Whitney, the very person Mr. Starlight had written to complain about.
Mr. Whitney just happens to be a former Liberal candidate, a well connected Liberal and a golfing buddy of the Prime Minister. How in the name of all that is just and fair can this minister justify this betrayal of Bruce Starlight?
Government Spending December 9th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, it has been said that giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
Three decades of Liberal and Tory governments intoxicated from swilling the taxpayers' hard earned money, carousing from one spending program to the next has left Canadians with a painful debt hangover.
While it appears that the Liberals have at last sworn off the stuff at least for now, Canadians know that their dependency problem has not been licked. At the very next opportunity they will sneak off to some dark corner of the budget, knock the top off a bottle of taxpayers' green and succumb to the stupor of fiscal inebriation.
Canadians know that a return to such substance abuse endangers the health of the country. They will not accept their government falling off the wagon. That is why at the next federal election they are going to send these tax and spend Liberals into paroxysms of withdrawal for an extended stay at the nearest fiscal detox centre and elect a sober Reform government.
Aboriginal Affairs November 27th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development is in crisis and the minister refuses to answer questions. She continues to say that only 3% of her social assistance budget is misused yet her own internal reviews state that as much as 75% of the money is unaccounted for.
Will the minister now admit that her native welfare administration is in chaos and in crisis?
Aboriginal Affairs November 26th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, that dog won't hunt.
In 1994 the auditor general said there was a problem and the government said that it would deal with it. Now, three years later, we find out that the problem not only still exists but is worse.
When did the minister first become aware of this document? Have her own departmental officials been stonewalling her?
Aboriginal Affairs November 26th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, a department of Indian affairs internal spending analysis obtained by the Reform Party is a catalogue of failure and a scathing indictment of the government. Words like non-compliance, inadequate documentation, double dipping, fraud and cooking the books are rife throughout.
A section of the report reveals DIAND officials think 20% to 50% of nearly $1 billion in aboriginal social assistance is not accounted for.
How could the minister possibly explain this massive abuse when so many are so badly in need?
Aboriginal Affairs November 21st, 1997
Mr. Speaker, Greg Twoyoungmen, chair of the Committee Against Injustice to Natives, has been scathingly critical of the department of Indian affairs in Alberta. He has publicly highlighted the absolute failure of the minister to protect the interests of grassroots aboriginal people.
Now we find the department of Indian affairs has blatantly tried to buy Mr. Twoyoungmen's silence by offering him a high paying job.
Why is the department of Indian affairs engaged in a seedy underhanded attempt to buy off its critics?
Canadian Wheat Board Act November 20th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, all I have to do is remember people like Eugene Whelan when I think about the kind of Liberal approach to managing and controlling all aspects of our economy and the kind of marketing boards that were set up by the Liberals in the sixties and the seventies. We all remember the trainload of rotten eggs.
To conclude my remarks, we live in what is ostensibly a free country, but we continue to encroach on the freedoms and the rights of citizens by such things as the grain police. Members opposite might think that this is humorous but I tell you, Mr. Speaker, that there will be a day of reckoning for treating people like this. There is going to be a time when this is no longer tolerated. I cannot say how that will come about. I cannot say when it will come about. But I can say that you cannot treat your citizens like this on an ongoing basis without serious repercussions.
I would ask hon. members in this House today who are going to be voting on this bill to consider the ramifications. This is an issue that is very important to many people in the prairie provinces in western Canada and we cannot treat them like this. We cannot expect them to continue to live in a civil society on these kinds of terms and conditions.
With that, I will conclude my remarks and thank the House for its indulgence.