Deborah Grey

[Human Resources Development, February 22nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, if this government had lowered taxes substantially we would see a lot better unemployment rate.

The HRD minister and the Prime Minister make a great couple. Not since Imelda Marcos have we seen anyone with such a nose for a bargain than the Prime Minister. This couple is spending other people's money.

[Human Resources Development, February 22nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the HRD minister unveiled yet another showcase of shame. The latest blizzard of paper had thousands of pages of the Liberals' sanitized shopping list. It turns out that some of those Liberal votes are fairly expensive. At least $1 billion out of that was bungled. It is not exactly a real deal and a bargain for Canadians.

She can roll her eyes, but I would like to ask either her or the fellow in charge of it all, if they had to do it all over again, would they again endorse such a billion dollar boondoggle?

[Committees Of The House, February 21st, 2000]

Madam Speaker, I move that the first report of the Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament presented to the House on December 16, 1999 be concurred in.

This report establishes the mandate of the committee, its quorum and its entitlement to sit during days at the Senate.

I would like to thank Santosh, the clerk of the committee, for the great job she has done.

(Motion agreed to)

[Human Resources Development, February 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I know some people who are not thankful today and those are the taxpayers who are paying a huge amount of cash to look after the minister's insatiable desire.

She says that there is no blame here whatsoever. She pretended she knew nothing about this $1 billion boondoggle for months before she actually let on. She pretended that her riding actually qualified for grants when she knew full well that it did not. Now she is pretending that it is her deputy minister who makes all the decisions.

When will the pretend minister stand up and say that she takes ministerial responsibility for this boondoggle?

[Human Resources Development, February 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, that is a nice try but she wrote a letter that was simply not true. The deputy minister already had signing authority, and we know that. What we are concerned about is actual approval authority. The minister remained the only person who could actually approve those grants to her riding, yet she tried to blame it on her deputy.

The minister said that her letter delegated approval authority to her deputy minister. It did not. How long does the minister think this trick can last?

[Human Resources Development, February 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, on Friday the HRD minister told the House “I confirm again that I wrote to my deputy and indicated that she would be the sole decision maker in terms of projects that were approved in the riding of Brant”. But that letter said absolutely nothing about approval authority.

I would like to ask, who was approving these grants?

[Human Resources Development, February 17th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, that is not true. The average rate for unemployment in 1997 in the riding of Brant, the category and the criteria for which the Canada jobs fund looks at, was in fact 8.4%, by her own documents.

One cannot delegate authority for these things. She is the MP. She is the minister. I do not think one can just delegate to the deputy minister.

Since she ultimately approved grants to her own riding in spite of the fact that it clearly did not qualify, can she tell us what constitutes an illegal grant?

[Human Resources Development, February 17th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the minister knows that the Canada jobs fund requires a 1997 unemployment rate of 10% for any given riding to qualify.

In 1997 the riding of Brant did not exceed that 10% threshold, no matter the deputy minister or who would give approval to that. By what authority did the minister authorize these grants?

[Human Resources Development, February 17th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, in order to qualify for Canada jobs fund grants a riding must have an unemployment rate of greater than 10% according to 1997 figures.

This past November 1, 1999, the HRD minister approved two CJF grants totalling $640,000 in her very own riding. Will the minister confirm these facts?

[Human Resources Development, February 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, insults do not impress people. The Prime Minister's Office demanded funds for a fountain. The fountain may be lovely but they had not even applied for any money. No one had even applied for that.

Now, in the middle of this huge boondoggle where we have seen all kinds of arrogance, wastage of money and misspending, a quarter of a million bucks was just announced last week for this fountain. When the Prime Minister brings up taxpayers' money, why is it he keeps thumbing his nose at these taxpayers?