Candice Bergen

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 30th, 2017]

With regard to the guidelines set out in the Prime Minister’s “Open and Accountable Government” document: (a) what processes are in place when a public office holder is accused of violating the Prime Minister’s guidelines; (b) what processes are in place when the Prime Minister is accused of violating the said guidelines?

[Ethics, January 30th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, he either did not know the rules, which does not make any sense, or he blatantly broke them, and he needs to tell Canadians which one of those he did.

The Ethics Commissioner, the Lobbying Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner, even the languages commissioner have placed the Prime Minister and his Liberals under investigation. That is unprecedented.

As we saw from Jacques Corriveau's sentencing last week, the Liberals have a history of breaking the rules. Sadly, this Prime Minister is no different. Does the Prime Minister not understand that there are consequences to breaking the law, and why in the world is he putting his own personal gain against the highest office in Canada?

[Ethics, January 30th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, section 12 of the Conflict of Interest Act says that no minister, including the Prime Minister, should accept travel on private aircraft except in exceptional circumstances. I do not think a holiday to the Bahamas is an exceptional circumstance. This Prime Minister seems to have no regard for the rules or even the law. Therefore we ask again and we ask him to answer Canadians today: Why does the Prime Minister think the rules around travel and private aircraft do not apply to people like him?

[Business of the House, December 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I want to echo and return the good wishes the hon. House leader just conveyed.

I want to begin by wishing the House leader a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday, as well as our counterpart, the House leader for the NDP. It has been a joy and a privilege to work together. I know it is a new position for all three of us. I think, with our teams, we have been able to work fairly well. I wish her, her team, the whips, and their teams very happy holidays.

I also want to mention the staff here, who have helped us so much. We thank the clerks here at the table so much for the votes they get through every week. We wish them a wonderful holiday and a restful time.

We want to thank the pages. They were mentioned, but we appreciate so much the pages who look after us here in the chamber.

We want to mention the security personnel who keep us safe. They do so in such a gracious manner. They always treat us so respectfully, but we know that they are looking out for our best interest and we so much appreciate what they are doing.

We thank the interpreters, as well, who do a wonderful job of ensuring that we always understand each other, and when we do not always give them a lot of good words to deal with, they still translate those very well, and we appreciate that.

We thank all of the House staff who are here and the bus drivers who get us here every day and make sure we get to our votes on time.

I wish you, Mr. Speaker, and your staff, a very merry Christmas. To those who are sitting who are Deputy Speakers as well and also take the Chair, we wish them happy holidays and a merry Christmas.

I thank all of my colleagues in the House for all the work they do. I hope they have a good time with their families and with their friends. Relax. Be reinvigorated. We will all be back here in 2017.

Merry Christmas.

[Business of the House, December 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the government House leader about the future business of the House and ask if she would consider an idea of mine. I know we are all getting ready to go on our Christmas holidays fairly soon, but I think that even during the Christmas time, there are lot of people in this country who are suffering because of job losses. I wonder if she would consider, when we return after the Christmas break, having a take-note debate regarding the job losses suffered in the energy sector.

[Ethics, December 13th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard said:

...our colleague knows very well that at events like this, government business is not discussed.

We all know now that this is completely false. Was the fisheries minister told by the Prime Minister to mislead Canadians? How long will Liberal ministers go along with the Prime Minister's corrupt and deceptive behaviour?

[Ethics, December 13th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, after months of denials, the Prime Minister finally admitted what everyone knows to be true, that he discusses government business at his Liberal cash for access fundraisers.

Now that he has admitted to breaking the rules, will his ministers do the same? Will the justice minister tell us what government business she discussed with lawyers at the fundraiser last April? Maybe the finance minister can tell us what fiscal policy he discussed with bankers at the Liberal cash for access event in August. Can they please all get their stories straight, and can they please admit they all broke the rules?

[Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, December 9th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, this is very disappointing. The Conservatives very much support trade deals and recognize how important they are. In fact, we were the party that actually negotiated and got this trade deal done.

It is unbelievable that the Liberals are squandering away the goodwill and the trust that had been established. It really begs the question of how much disrespect do they think this Parliament, this House, will be able to endure when they create this kind of poisonous atmosphere?

I am very disappointed in this. I really do not know what they are trying to accomplish, except to try to bully and push everything through that they can.

[Taxation, December 9th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, nobody is buying their repeat, repeat, repeat lines. It is beginning to look very foolish for all the Liberals on that side of the House.

Over 30,000 full-time jobs have been lost, and the finance minister's own department is saying that things are only going to get worse. Yet today the Prime Minister is threatening Canadians with a punitive and ineffective carbon tax, putting even more jobs at risk and leading to the biggest increase in the cost of doing business in a generation.

Why does the Prime Minister insist on further hurting Canadian jobs and putting Canadian businesses at a competitive disadvantage?

[Ethics, December 9th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals again did not answer the question. It was a very simple question.

The Liberals claim they are following the rules. They claim they are open and transparent. However, they refuse to publicly disclose, for example, the dates and locations of these shady Liberal fundraisers.

If the Liberals have nothing to hide and they are indeed following all the rules, why are they now hiding the details of their cash for access fundraisers from the public?