Bob Rae

[Points of Order, January 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, we were all on this side very happy to see the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans on his feet today in question period.

[Parliamentary Budget Officer, January 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear after the Minister of Finance's attack on the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Mr. Kevin Page, that it is the Prime Minister's intention to turn the taxpayers' watchdog into his personal lapdog. That is the plan the government has.

The government having fired Marty Cheliak, Pat Stogran, Linda Keen, Peter Tinsley, Paul Kennedy, Adrian Measner, Munir Sheikh, Steve Sullivan and Rémy Beauregard, why is the name of Kevin Page being added to this list of people who are being thrown out of the bus because they had an independent opinion about something?

[Aboriginal Affairs, January 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, there is currently no legislation before the House of Commons about the resources needed to fix this problem.

In 2011, 73% of first nations water systems were categorized as risky. That was not in 2006, 2007 or 2008. That was in 2011. So the problem remains. The facts on the ground do not match the Prime Minister's rhetoric.

[Aboriginal Affairs, January 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in November 2011, the House voted to approve a resolution that said we need to bring safe, clean, running water to all communities on an urgent basis. That was in November 2011, but since 2006 when the Conservative government took office, there has been a 23% increase in the number of first nation reserves that are living under boil water advisories, from 95 communities to 117. The problem the government faces is that the facts on the ground do not match the rhetoric in this place. That is the reason for the skepticism among first nations.

[Government Accountability, January 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, one of the commitments the Conservative Party made in 2006 was to create an independent parliamentary budget authority to provide objective analysis directly to Parliament.

I ask the Prime Minister, how is that statement and the creation of the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer in any way, shape or form compatible with the kind of cheap partisan attacks that the Minister of Finance made against the Parliamentary Budget Officer and against his observation that the job of the Parliamentary Budget Officer was to be a sounding board for the government? Does the Prime Minister not realize it is independent and—

[Aboriginal Affairs, January 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, since this government has signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can the Prime Minister tell us unequivocally that the government accepts its responsibilities?

Does the government acknowledge that Canada has legal obligations as a result of signing the UN Declaration?

[Aboriginal Affairs, January 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in November last year, the national chief wrote a letter to the Prime Minister expressing profound concern that in fact progress was not being made, that in fact aboriginal people were not being appropriately consulted, and that in fact there was no basis upon which he could say, to the people that he represented, that in fact substantial progress was being made.

Can the Prime Minister tell us what further action he is going to take? What change is he going to introduce that will end the sense that the aboriginal population of Canada is being marginalized by the policies of the Government of Canada?

[National Defence, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister just repeated the exact same mistakes. The Prime Minister should read the Auditor General's report again. The Auditor General clearly said that the information the government had was not given to the Parliament of Canada. That is exactly what the Auditor General said.

Does the Prime Minister think it is fine that Parliament did not receive the necessary information? That is exactly what this government did.

[National Defence, December 12th, 2012]

This stuff does not bother me, Mr. Speaker. Let us get on with the real issue.

The Auditor General's report showed two sets of information, two sets of books, being presented to Parliament and being presented in an attack on the Parliamentary Budget Officer. That is what the Prime Minister is condoning. That is what the Prime Minister is saying is absolutely no problem. I guess what the Prime Minister of Canada is telling Canadians is that it is okay to mislead Canadians. It is okay to tell them untruths during an election campaign. It is okay to give misleading information to Parliament. All of that is okay. It is okay for the Minister of National Defence to attack those people--

[National Defence, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the record, and I would ask the Prime Minister to go back--