Jane Stewart

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, again, I do not know where these guys have been. We got an internal audit. We, the department, made it public. We are not hiding from anything. We, the Department of Human Resources Development Canada, are going to change, improve and respond to the needs of Canadians.

There is nothing here that is anything different than what the Canadian public expects. We will continue with this kind of action because it is what the people want.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I will get the information from the hon. member. As I have said in all my responses, we take all requests seriously and we will act on them in a serious manner.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is talking about ethics. If members of that party had any ethics they would stand and apologize to the Canadian people for creating the myth that $3 billion has gone missing as a result of work in my department. They would stand and say that it was not $1 billion. They would stand and say to those communities, which they have cast aspersions on, and to those individuals in my riding who have received benefits from the grants and contributions, that they were wrong.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talks about a report from 18 months ago. That is two names ago for that party. Not much has changed there as a result of that, but a lot has happened in my department.

The employees of the department, along with the senior executive management and myself, are implementing real change. It is a change that Canadians expect. As I said, the Canadian people will judge us by our results.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that this is the most bizarre line of questioning I have ever been privy to.

For heaven's sake, let us just go through what has happened. We did our own audit. We saw that there were places where we could make significant improvements. We have said to the Canadian public that we have identified where we can improve our business and we will make those changes.

We are doing exactly what the public expects us to do to continuously improve and to keep them informed about how we are performing and how we are improving. I am not going to change that approach.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, members of that party opposite continue to show that they are stuck in the past. Here they are focusing on something in 1998.

I would ask them to please take the time to look at the year 2000 to see what we are doing in the department to engage the employees and to ensure that they can participate in improving their system so that they can serve Canadians better.

I have been to operations in Calgary, Toronto and Quebec City. The men and women of my department are standing tall, alongside me, as we implement changes that will improve the system. Canadians expect us to do that, and they will watch and judge us by our actions.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I have to remind the hon. member that it was our own audit, an internal audit, to which we were responding. We were not caught by anybody.

It is part of our process of continuous improvement. We do look at ourselves. We do identify where we can make improvements, and we take action.

They should look at the six point plan, look at the work of the department and look at the commitment of the men and women who are ensuring that we build a system of modern comptrollership that will be second to none.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, let us quote some other things from the same report:

The majority of HRDC employees agreed that management in their office consistently demonstrates a commitment to the importance of ethical behaviour. Similarly, well over one-half of HRDC employees surveyed agreed that employees in their office make sure that the taxpayers' money is spent wisely.

Let us get the whole story on the agenda.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talks about perception. What I want to talk about is the reality. The reality today is that my department is working extraordinarily hard to make improvements, to continuously improve our operations.

Canadians do not expect everything to be perfect all the time, but by golly they expect us to make improvements when we get the information, and we are doing just that.

[Human Resources Development, March 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the department has done an extraordinary job at improving its service delivery methods. The department and Canadians appreciate and understand the value of grants and contributions to them. We have taken extraordinary measures to improve our relationship at the community level, in Liberal communities as well as in those represented by that party.

As a result of the work of the internal audit we are undertaking also to improve our modern methods of comptrollership, modern strategies that will allow the department to deliver better service and be accountable to the taxpayer. That cannot be wrong.