Charlie Penson

[Human Resources Development, February 25th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, what a surprise. The human resources minister got it wrong again. The minister's famous list has Aquilium Software Corporation listed as bankrupt. That came as quite a shock to the company. It is alive and well, and frankly must be very glad the human resources minister is not its accountant.

Is it the policy of the minister to deem companies bankrupt so they can qualify for even more HRDC money?

[Human Resources Development, February 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, with tax time just around the corner Canadians are pretty conscious. They are getting pretty angry with the government's mismanagement of their money, yet the Prime Minister does not seem to think there is anything wrong. He says the billion dollar boondoggle over at HRDC is just business as usual.

Why cannot the Prime Minister understand that the little guy from Shawinigan's fountain, statue, is nothing more than peeing taxpayer money down the St. Maurice River?

[Human Resources Development, February 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are getting pretty angry with the government's gross mismanagement of their money, especially when tax time is right around the corner. The Prime Minister does not seem to think there is anything wrong. He says the billion dollar boondoggle at HRDC—

[Human Resources Development, February 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, in 1997 an audit of TJF projects in Quebec and Atlantic Canada revealed that grants were too political, that eligibility rules were bent, and that job creation figures were inflated. In fact it described the job creation numbers as misleading and said that pressure to expedite these grants was exerted from the political level.

Given the fact that no action was taken to fix this problem, why should Canadians believe that this program was not working exactly as the Liberals intended, to send out grants for political gain and nothing else?

[Human Resources Development, February 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's former director of communications used this list to advise Liberal MPs where they could get an easy photo op by exploiting recipients of federal grants. This list was circulated to only a select group of MPs and what a surprise. What a surprise that only Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers got a copy. That is a real democratic process.

Will the Deputy Prime Minister acknowledge the obvious, that these grants were more about raising the profile of Liberal MPs than they were about giving grant money to Canadians and creating jobs? Is that not obvious to everybody?

[Taxation, February 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, yes, Virginia, there is a brain drain and overtaxation is to blame. Hurrah, the industry minister has finally acknowledged the role that high corporate taxes play in driving our best and brightest out of Canada. But what is he going to do about it?

Witness after witness appearing before the industry committee's productivity study have called for lower corporate and personal income tax rates. Leading economists, such as Pierre Fortin, have said that the answer to Canada's declining standard of living is to cut taxes and pay down debt. It is very simple: cut taxes and pay down debt.

Clearly it is time for the minister to stand for Canada. It is time for him to put his money where his mouth is and deliver real tax cuts on budget day.

[Human Resources Development, February 15th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are not being fooled by this smokescreen. They are not being fooled by what is happening over there. In fact, they are pretty disgusted by the laughter. A billion dollars of taxpayers' money has been mismanaged and the government thinks it is funny. I do not think it is funny.

Who are these people who benefited from the minister's largesse? The Walton family, which owns Wal-Mart. Four of them are listed in the top 10 list of Forbes as Americans who are the richest people in the world. Why is the minister wasting taxpayers' money on these kinds of people?

[Human Resources Development, February 15th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing again today is another diversionary tactic by this minister.

Who are these needy people?

[Human Resources Development, February 15th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I think I will just pick up with Wal-Mart, one of the world's largest companies, that benefited from this minister's largesse by $500,000.

My question is for the minister. Why does the human resource minister think that defending bonuses to large corporate companies, multibillion dollar companies, is more important than providing a health care budget for Canadians?

[Human Resources Development, February 15th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the human resource minister loves to crow about the transitional jobs fund going to the needy.

Consider these needy companies: Videotron, recently merged for $5.6 billion, got $2.5 million from this minister; RMH Teleservices, worth $80 billion, got $1.6 million from this minister. What about Wal-Mart, one of the world's largest companies—