Jacques Saada

[Question No. 49, April 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, as is well known, the government has already provided a considerable amount of related information to the public accounts committee in the context of its examination of chapters 3, 4 and 5 of the report of the Auditor General of November 2003 and is actively dealing with outstanding motions passed by the committee for additional information.

Question No. 49 is extremely broad. It appears to target all departments, agencies and crown corporations. In addition, it covers a period of almost 10 years, which makes the task all the more difficult given that, under applicable rules, federal departments must keep their records for a period of six years only.

Extensive work has already been done to collect the relevant information in answer to this question and to perform the required verification. However, and in spite of the extensive efforts invested so far, the work is not completed yet. More time is needed to perform the type of quality control that is necessary to ensure that the information provided to the House is as comprehensive and reliable as possible.

The government will provide a supplementary reply to this question as soon as the requested information is ready.

[Business of the House, April 1st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon, we shall continue debate on Bill C-30, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 23, 2004. If this is completed, we will commence second reading of Bill C-28, an act to amend the Canada National Parks Act.

Tomorrow, we will debate a motion to refer to committee before second reading Bill C-25, an act to establish a procedure for the disclosure of wrongdoings in the public sector, including the protection of persons who disclose the wrongdoings, and hopefully deal with the Senate amendments to Bill C-8, an act to establish the Library and Archives of Canada, to amend the Copyright Act and to amend certain acts in consequence.

When the House returns on April 19, any of this business that is unfinished will be taken up, along with Bill C-11, an act to give effect to the Westbank First Nation Self-Government Agreement, Bill C-12, an act to amend the Criminal Code (protection of children and other vulnerable persons) and the Canada Evidence Act, and Bill C-10, an act to amend the Contraventions Act and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Bill C-15, an act to implement treaties and administrative arrangements on the international transfer of persons found guilty of criminal offences, Bill C-28, an act to amend the Canada National Parks Act, Bill C-23, an act to provide for real property taxation powers of first nations, to create a First Nations Tax Commission, First Nations Financial Management Board, First Nations Finance Authority and First Nations Statistical Institute and to make consequential amendments to other acts, and the bill introduced yesterday, Bill C-31, an act to give effect to a land claims and self-government agreement among the Tlicho, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government of Canada, to make related amendments to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts.

I should like to wish my colleagues a happy and pleasant holiday period and to express my hope that they return refreshed and ready for a full legislative agenda for the spring.

[Sponsorship Program, April 1st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I think that the double standard for integrity in that party is absolutely shocking. They did not raise their voices at all when the Parti Quebecois, under Mr. Parizeau, during or prior to the referendum, planned to steal $18,000 from every family in Quebec to preserve the sovereignty they did not want. Let us have no lessons in morality from those people—none at all.

[Sponsorship Program, April 1st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the money the Liberal Party will be campaigning with is just as clean as the money the Bloc Quebecois used when the Parti Quebecois gave it money to finance the 1997 campaign.

The Bloc has absolutely no right to cast aspersions on the integrity of our party, the integrity of this money and the integrity of the campaign we are going to run—no right at all.

[The Prime Minister, April 1st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that coherence should prevail in this House. When these people are talking about democratic reform, they are not even responding to the invitation that we on this side have made to them to rise above party politics and to deal with reform of Parliament. They refuse.

We have applied free votes here. They have refused. We want to reinforce committees. They have refused. They talk out of both sides of their mouths. It is just not credible.

[The Prime Minister, April 1st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, number one, we are very proud of his choices. Number two, it is not business of government and therefore his question is not admissible.

[Sponsorship Program, March 31st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder how Quebeckers can understand the logic of the Bloc Quebecois members, who claim to want to get to the bottom of this, but refuse to accept the release of Mr. Guité's report. Although Mr. Guité himself wants the report made public, they refuse. They are speaking out of both sides of their mouths. Either they want the truth and let the report be made public, or they do not want the truth, for political reasons, and face the consequences of that.

[Sponsorship Program, March 31st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the biggest theft ever has to be Mr. Parizeau's intended use of the $17 billion he had put aside to achieve the sovereignty Quebeckers did not want. In other words, they wanted to take $18,000 out of the pockets of every Quebec family for something Quebeckers did not want. Let them get back to reality in Quebec; they are totally divorced from it.

[Sponsorship Program, March 31st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, did the Leader of the Bloc Quebecois ask the Parti Quebecois government to conduct an investigation into the Oxygène 9 scandal? Not once. Did he ask that government to conduct an investigation into the SGF scandal? Not once. Did he ask that government to conduct an investigation into the LeHir and the Conseil de la souveraineté scandals? Not once. The Bloc is in no position to ask questions about integrity.

[Sponsorship Program, March 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it is the other side which prevented the work of the committee to develop as quickly as we wanted it. It is the other side which is resisting the calls for an interim report. It is the other side which has politicized the debate so much in the committee that they have lost credibility in the process.

It is their problem, not our problem.