House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2000, with 51% of the vote.
Grants And Contributions February 7th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, one wonders if Mr. Bouchard made these decisions on his own.
The Prime Minister said that not one cent of immigrant investor money went into the Auberge Grand-Mère. He was out a whopping 235 million cents. It was $2.35 million that went into a business, which would increase the value of a golf course that was still owned by the Prime Minister.
Is that not the real reason that the Prime Minister tried to cover it over?
Government Grants February 6th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, surely the industry minister, if he has a handle on his department, would of his own volition have some problems with some of the things that have gone on for years, not only in this department but in many departments across the way, evidently with full sanction from the Prime Minister.
The fact that the industry minister has announced that he is trying to demand money back from Lemire and Pepin proves that there was impropriety with taxpayer dollars. That is why we sent these documents to the RCMP last December 8 as soon as this was revealed.
Why did the government make $600,000 available without ensuring that absolutely all criteria were met?
Government Grants February 6th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, these kinds of answers have nothing to do with the real problem. The auditor general says that new incidents keep cropping up. I asked the industry minister about one yesterday. He did not even know of this latest one.
He knows that Mr. Lemire and Mr. Pepin have been charged with fraud and theft in their handling of government grants in the Prime Minister's riding. They are also involved in a questionable Shawinigan scheme that allowed them to qualify for $600,000 more by using previous federal grants for seed money.
Something is wrong with that. The Prime Minister's chief of staff was warned in writing, yet the deal slithered through anyway. Has the industry minister contacted the RCMP about this? Yes or no.
Government Grants February 6th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, the auditor general says that—
Government Grants February 5th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I believe more of the same answers. That is for sure.
Out of the 24 communities applying for this investment money from the Canada community investment plan, Shawinigan was rated number one by a screening panel that included two failed Liberal candidates in Quebec and a prominent Liberal from Saskatchewan. Surely that one is not a surprise to him. Surely he is up to speed on his department.
Is that what the red book really meant, that the government would manipulate departmental programs to funnel money into Shawinigan?
Government Grants February 5th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, the Canada community investment plan was a red book commitment to improve access to venture capital in remote communities. A $600,000 grant went to guess where? It was Shawinigan, after it was named “the most eligible community in Canada”. However that screening panel included several good Liberals who said “the panel was sensitive to regional and other political considerations”.
Why money was funnelled to supporters of the Prime Minister in Shawinigan, two of whom are now charged with embezzling in two other cases?
Speech From The Throne February 1st, 2001
Mr. Speaker, congratulations to you on your appointment.
I thank the hon. member for his speech. In many respects parliamentary reform is something that has been talked about here for probably at least one generation. I know that it is easy for members on either side of the House to talk about it, probably when they are in opposition. The bullet comes, of course, when some party forms a government. Parliamentary reform becomes just terribly inconvenient or messy or really inefficient when a government is formed and is trying to blast things through.
On the specific issue of the ethics counsellor. I thought it was interesting. There is a huge difference between reporting to parliament and just having coffee with the Prime Minister, for instance, and tossing off a note saying everything is okay.
I would be interested to hear the hon. member give a brief comment on what has gone wrong since red book one.
Now very specifically, in regard to the symposium that took place earlier on Parliament Hill today when we talked about trying to do something practical about democracy, we heard from an expert source that it is not so much that the rules need to be changed, because we have all the rules in the world. We would be able to change them at will if there were unanimous consent, I am sure, on both sides of the House. The expert said that the rules are there to allow us to do whatever we want to do in terms of making sure that we really do have a working democracy, but he said that it was caucus culture, that there is a sickness there. I wonder if the hon. member could talk about any caucus culture on the government side that seems to be just desperately against this whole idea of really freeing things up.
Speech From The Throne February 1st, 2001
Mr. Speaker, if only I could plan for pension reform by registering my ships off country, it would be a great thing.
Surely the government knows that this was based on budget 2000 and the mini-budget that was purely for election purposes in October. That is what it was based on.
The economy grew in Canada by 0.1%. Almost half of Canadian manufacturers are scaling back. This is not happy news. These are warning signs in Canada but the government refuses to act.
Why will the Prime Minister not simply reassure Canadian families and working people and table a budget soon?
Speech From The Throne February 1st, 2001
Mr. Speaker, it looks like gentlemen start your engines, the race is on. It is really not that complicated. Things did look better in the fall when the government brought forward its plan. It brought forward a financial plan based on certain assumptions.
Those assumptions have now changed. The government should be tabling a new budget now, not down the road when things get worse. It is a question of prudence. I am sure the government understands that. What part of prudence is the Prime Minister objecting to?
Pornography January 31st, 2001
Should I give him my red jacket?