Charlie Angus

[Access to Information, May 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty sad for a Prime Minister who promised us transparent government and hides behind the antics of that man. It says a lot.

Speaking of hiding, we know how the government has tried to drive the access to information system into the ground and obstruct the commissioner at every turn. Now we are learning that it is using summer students to vet government documents, including issues of cabinet confidences, issues of privacy, issues of timely access in which Canadians have a right to information.

This is just plain incompetence. Other than hiring students from Kijiji, does the government have any plan to address the terrible crisis of access to information in this country?

[Ethics, May 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are hard working. They expect better from a government that is embroiled with 50 senators being investigated for corruption.

This is a scandal that begins and ends in the Prime Minister's Office, from the potentially ineligible Senate appointments to the whitewashed audit. We learned from the RCMP that when it came to whitewashing the Deloitte audit, the Prime Minister's key staff were heavily involved in discussions with the Senate.

Will the Prime Minister's spokesman tell the House who in the Prime Minister's Office has been discussing, with the key Conservative senators, the bombshell Auditor General's report that is coming out next week?

[Canada Revenue Agency, May 14th, 2015]

Here we go again, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of National Revenue continues to drop the ball when it comes protecting the personal financial information of Canadians. Check this one out.

CRA found that 22% of its employees were duped by a fake phishing email scam. That is like giving an all-access pass to cybercriminals. We are talking about the most important information that Canadians turn over to government.

Now the current minister and her tired, worn-out government are running out of time. She has three months left in her job. Is she not going to establish some kind of protocols to protect the private rights of Canadians?

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2015]

That is not your responsibility? You are a clown. That man is a clown—

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, I am not going to engage in silly rhetoric with the minister. I am going to ask him, given the horrific death rates that we have among children who do not have access to schools, if he can tell us what the national suicide rate is on reserve among young people under his watch?

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, I am not trying to make this hard, but these are from his own education reports in 2012 on first nation education. It said there was a 40% dropout rate and that the cost to the Canadian economy was $887 million for each cohort of 14- to 19-year-old students who drop out. I would think the minister would be very concerned about that, but obviously he does not bother to read his own reports.

Would the minister tell us how much AANDC allocates specifically for special education for first nation students on reserve?

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, would he be able to tell us, from his own government studies, what the cost is to the Canadian economy for each cohort of 14- to 19-year-old students who drop out? Could he tell us that?

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, as I said, it is not very helpful when they make these promises and then pull the money back and actually do not spend it, as their own reports say.

Will the minister tell us, because he is the minister in charge of the education of thousands and thousands of indigenous children in this country, what the graduating rates are for elementary school and high school first nation students on reserve?

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, that was a fairly ridiculous response to something that he should know, because they were bragging about cutting this internal audit in their own end-of-year report. I would be surprised if the minister did not know that.

In 2013-14, how much of the $300 million that was planned for educational facilities was actually spent?

The answer is that they held back $86 million and did not bother to spend it on first nations children.

According to AANDC's $8.2 billion infrastructure gap, how much is needed for school facilities?

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, I do not know what the minister is talking about. We are talking about numeracy and literacy rates of 18% and 21% in the Ontario region, and I asked whether he could confirm that the internal audit of AANDC into elementary and secondary schools on reserve had been cancelled. Will he confirm that?