Lost his last election, in 2006, with 41% of the vote.
Points of Order February 18th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, if I may, I would like to deal seriously with one piece of this. We will check the tape. If I said on the record that the member received the money personally, I will withdraw that. That was never my intention and I would apologize to the member if that is in fact what I said.
However, as far as tabling the document goes, absolutely, I will make copies for everyone.
Points of Order February 18th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, the allegation from that side of the House was that a member on this side of the House, as a private citizen, when seeking funds on behalf of a community organization, was somehow engaged in a corrupt act.
There was $115,000 given to the organization in the hon. member's riding, not to the hon. member, I said in his riding. It was given two years in a row.
Government Contracts February 18th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, when the member asks the question, he might want to listen to the answer, just for a little bit. The Auditor General in her report, the famous report, says:
In a large organization like the federal government, there are bound to be problems and failures, despite best efforts
The minister stood up and said that the Auditor General had said that a number of departments were buying the same report, and this was foolish. The minister said, “I agree”. We changed the program. We stopped it from happening, and if you want the list of names, he will give them to you.
Government Contracts February 18th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, what I would invite the member to do, as a great many of the journalists and columnists have done, is to go to the website, download the report, read it and see what he finds in that.
I think he will find what some of the, shall I say, more thoughtful columnists from western Canada have found. Don Martin said:
--I don't buy the notion Martin knew about any criminal wrongdoing ahead of the Auditor-General's report or that he will ever be directly implicated in the scandal.
He had read the audit. Why does the hon. member not read it?
Sponsorship Program February 18th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, if I understand the question, when a private citizen is involved in trying to get some support for an organization in their area, that is wrong.
When the member for Calgary Southeast received $115,000 from the sponsorship program--
Government Contracts February 18th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, it is really easy for the opposition to come into the House and slander staff and slander, through innuendo, other members of the House, trying to create an atmosphere of distrust. I would ask him to put a single fact on the table that proves his allegation.
Let me tell the House what somebody else thinks about the Prime Minister. This is from today's Globe and Mail . It states:
...Prime Minister Paul Martin deserves more credit than the polls are giving him.
Government Contracts February 18th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, it is true the government received an internal audit report which it hid on its website so everyone could see it. I would invite the member to read it and see what he would discern from that.
I might also point out that the Auditor General himself, because it was the previous Auditor General, when auditing the department's books did not discover what this member seems to have discovered. The fact is that the information that was available was relatively coached bureaucratese. It was done by somebody who was not sure what was going on.
I suspect that if the member opposite read that report, and I would invite him to do so, it would be interesting to see the conclusions that he would come to.
Auditor General's Report February 17th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I think the member raises an important point.
If I understood his question, it is relative to the applicability of some of the oversight mechanisms of the private foundations. Some concerns have been raised about that, concerns that I raised as the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations.
I can tell the member that we have a process in place to examine governance in the largest scope possible of looking at these alternative service delivery mechanisms.
I invite the member to join us and work with us because we think it is time to review these mechanisms.
Sponsorship Program February 17th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out that the member for Winnipeg--Transcona and I were not separated at birth, as is commonly believed in the House.
In response to his question, if he has a scintilla of evidence to put on the table to support his claim, then he should do it. If he can demonstrate that anything was done improperly or illegally, he should bring it forward and the process will deal with it.
Sponsorship Program February 17th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I--