Lost his last election, in 2006, with 41% of the vote.
Government Expenditures February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to receive an actual question about the Treasury Board. The member who poses it is someone for whom I have a great deal of respect and with whom I have worked closely in the House.
It is a good question. It is a legitimate question. The reality is, though, when we close something down, there are closing down costs. We closed it down and we paid out the costs.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, that hon. member is actually from my home province. He was indeed the attorney general of that province. I think it is disgraceful that he displays so little understanding of due law and process.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, since the opposition likes to repeat things, let me repeat what was said today. Most Canadians are already tired of the daily barrage of shrill charges and allegations, and are ready to let the official inquiries do the work.
If the hon. member has a concern, if he has a single substantive fact to put on the table, I would encourage him to do so. In the absence of that, he should stop the slander.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, it seems that members on the other side cannot add and they cannot read. I would encourage them to read what the auditor said which was, after the government had alerted her office to this problem, they went to work under the current finance minister, when he was the minister for Public Works and Government Services, and under the Minister of Industry, when she was in charge of the Treasury Board, and cleaned it up.
The auditor gives the former president of the Treasury Board full marks for fixing this problem.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I would ask the member to read some of the literature that we get in the House, like the Public Accounts of Canada . The Auditor General, who signed the attest audit in 2001, had 562 staff whose full time job was to examine all spending in government. They did not uncover this scandal, yet the opposition expects a minister to know intimately the details of what is two one hundredths of one per cent of the total envelope.
The auditor could not catch it, not because it was not a good audit, but because it was a very small area.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, let us try La Presse today. La Presse asked what voters demand from the head of government.
The answer was that he not sidestep the issue but immediately recognize its seriousness, which is what the current Prime Minister did.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, the opposition again comes forward with another slander and another attack on persons by calling people thieves over here and calling them sleazy over there.
Let us ask what the Globe and Mail feels about the Prime Minister today:
That the government is willing to have itself held accountable when things go wrong is surely a sign of positive change.
Most Canadians are already tired of the daily barrage of shrill charges and allegations, and are ready to let the official inquiries do the--
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, a lesson in mathematics from the member who believes that the Prime Minister signs all 252 million cheques is not really on the floor today.
I want to point out to the member what the Auditor General said this morning, not a week ago, and not two weeks ago. The Auditor General said that the Prime Minister and the government have taken the issue seriously and have implemented measures along the lines recommended in her report. That is today's statement from the Auditor General.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, given the propensity of the member's party to base its questions on altered documents, let me remind her of a comment she made during the HRDC issue. I refer to a policy study from Queen's University that suggested that the billion dollar boondoggle was actually a $6,500 boondoggle.
Sponsorship Program February 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, what the Prime Minister has done is put in place a process. The opposition would like us to tell the inquiry commissioner what to do, when to do it, and how to do it; however, we prefer to leave those judgments up to him and to allow him to make them as independent and open as possible.
I note that the member for St. Albert today said that this is an historic day for democracy in Canada thanks to the Prime Minister.