House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2000, with 56% of the vote.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to say again to the hon. member that there was no access to information that forced us to make the audit public.
I want to say that I have resented personally the accusations that the member has made against me, calling me a liar outside of the House, because she is wrong.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, again as I said earlier, I will look into this project and provide an undertaking to the member.
Post-Secondary Education March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, again I would remind the hon. member that as of the most recent budget two weeks ago, an additional $2.5 billion has been made available to the provinces for health care and education.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, again I would remind the hon. member that the auditor general will be doing a study, a review, of the grants and contributions in my department. I look forward to his recommendations.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, again I must categorically reject the assertions of the hon. member. Perhaps if instead of reading interim draft reports members would read the final report, they would see that we have taken this audit seriously. They would see that we have a plan of action that is working. We are training our employees. We have got a national auditing structure that is going office by office and monitoring reports—
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, I will take the hon. member's question under advisement and apprise him of a response.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, let me again give the hon. member the real facts. Indeed with Bas Iris the original plan was to be worth $8.1 million but because of production losses the moneys that were transferred were $5.9 million. In fact 1,400 jobs were created, not only 1,400 jobs but an additional 40 jobs. This has been an important industrial, economic and social advantage to the area.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member cared to pay attention he would know that even the data collection for the audit was not completed until the early part of the fall. He would understand in the course of an internal audit that once the data is collected the management team has to prepare the response. He would understand that as minister, when I received this information, I took it seriously and I said that the management response was not strong enough. It was strengthened and when the whole report was completed we chose to make it public.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, when I received the results of the internal audit, without question I took them seriously. I advised the department to strengthen its management report and when the whole audit was completed we made it public.
The six point plan that we are now implementing, which has had the benefit of advice from the auditor general, from outside third parties, is being implemented. I have had the pleasure of going to talk with departmental officials in Calgary and Toronto and in other parts of the country and they are doing their job.
Human Resources Development March 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member makes reference to the Rosemont files. As he knows, on Monday last the department issued a press release saying that this had been referred to the RCMP. As such, the questions would be presented to them.