Alexandre Boulerice

[G8 Summit, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, history never repeats itself, but it sometimes follows a similar script.

It seems that the President of the Treasury Board was not the only one to profit from the G8 summit in his riding. The Deerhurst resort also won the G8 lottery by getting $2 million in free renovations. Less than nine months later, this hotel was sold for $26 million. We know why: because it did not have to pay for the renovations itself.

Is that the Conservatives' tax plan: take public money and distribute it to its friends in the private sector? Can the member for Parry Sound—Muskoka explain why public money was spent to line the pockets of an individual?

[G8 Summit, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the NDP we now know that the G8 summit resulted in an incredible waste of public money, perhaps the worst since the sponsorship scandal. Canadians want to know why no one has been punished. In addition to the gazebos, Olympic-sized skating rinks, fake media centres—there is no end to the list—we have just learned that the Deerhurst resort received millions of dollars in public money to make cosmetic changes that cost us an arm and a leg. The government paid exorbitant amounts to move a bed or a chandelier and of course, once again, taxpayers footed the $2 million bill.

Can the President of the Treasury Board explain to Canadians what was the cost value of the G8 fiasco that was held in his riding?

[Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, November 17th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am sad to see that the President of the Treasury Board has a new spokesperson today. So that he fully understands the question I just asked, I will try to be as simple and clear as possible. Canadians have a right to know exactly how that money was distributed in Parry Sound—Muskoka. The member for Parry Sound—Muskoka has 242 forms sitting in drawers in his constituency office in Huntsville. Twice, he told everyone that he would hand them over.

Will he keep his word and finally hand over these documents?

[Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, November 17th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, this government really has a strange way of doing things. On the one hand it lets one member do whatever he wants and request documents that are the subject of an ongoing court battle. That undermines the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches. What is more, the parliamentary law clerk deemed that this was unlawful. On the other hand, the President of the Treasury Board said, “oh, sure”, promising to hand over handwritten documents that he himself used to authorize $50 million in spending for gazebos in his riding. We are still waiting for those documents.

Will he hand them over today?

[Campaign Financing, November 14th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, not only do the Conservatives do as they please with the public service, as we have seen in the past, but now they are also using Parliament Hill as a private meeting room to honour party insiders or to organize an event for the Conservative Albany Club. And who will be the next guest of honour? The person responsible for cutting $4 billion in public services, the President of the Treasury Board. It makes no sense, it oversteps all boundaries, when members use Parliament to raise money for party insiders.

Why do the Conservatives continue to believe that they do not have to follow the same rules as all other Canadians?

[Campaign Financing, November 14th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, anyone can see the difference between trying to respect a man's final wishes and trying to steal an election, as the Conservative Party did in 2006.

On August 30, the Privy Council summoned 200 civil servants to a meeting, supposedly to talk about budget cuts. But when they arrived, surprise, they found out it was a party organized to say goodbye to Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister's former director of communications .

Is this government capable of making the distinction between the public service and partisan politics?

[G8 Summit, November 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday why the President of the Treasury Board is never the one to answer in this House.

Let us review the facts. The President of the Treasury Board signed contribution agreements; he even created a nice homemade form. He met with local officials and helped select the projects. His constituency office even intervened to make sure those projects got money.

Does anyone still really believe that the President of the Treasury Board was not involved in this scandal?

[G8 Summit, November 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, before the committee yesterday, the President of the Treasury Board tried in vain to put out the fire that is raging regarding the G8 scandal.

The problem, however, is that his statements raised more questions than they answered. The hon. member for Parry Sound—Muskoka told us, for example, that without any intervention on his part, the 242 projects initially presented were somehow whittled down to 32, as if by magic. There is no paper trail of any kind on that.

Can the President of the Treasury Board finally explain to us what criteria he used to choose those 32 projects?

[Government Response to Petitions, November 2nd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I seek the consent of the House to table, in both official languages, documents from the office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer which show, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the budget line for the Perimeter Institute has increased by 1,270%.

Thus, my questions were appropriate and the accusations hurled at me were unfounded.

[Science and Technology, November 1st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we will never apologize for revealing errors and this government's mismanagement. It is pathetic to hear answers that are cheap shots designed to distract us from the facts. The Perimeter Institute does excellent work and we salute them. Personally, I love the study of particles and especially the superstring theory. However, what we are talking about here is that the President of the Treasury Board is responsible for estimates. We know that he has a talent for discreetly transferring money to secret funds.

What is he going to do to make sure these errors do not happen again?