Charlie Angus

[President of the Treasury Board, October 5th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, it is now 118 days since the President of the Treasury Board vanished in plain sight, and little wonder. He ran a homemade paper trail through his constituency office, conveniently beyond the reach of the Auditor General.

The Information Commissioner says that she is worried about the use of private emails to cover the tracks of ministers. The government is a black hole of accountability and the President of the Treasury Board is at the centre of this hole.

Will he stand up in the House today and explain why the Auditor General was misled?

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to my colleague. He spoke generally about the issue of suicide, but I want to speak about the crisis that is affecting the children in my region, children who have been completely abandoned by the federal government. In fact, there are communities with no schools. I do not know if my hon. colleague read the suicide report from the coroner about the crisis in Pikangikum, which specifically identified the fact that children without schools have a sense of hopelessness.

I would like to bring the member's attention to the fact that the Shannen's Dream campaign, which has been fighting for equal rights for children, has been stonewalled time and time again by the government. This issue is actually being taken to the United Nations in February. There will be an unprecedented situation: children from northern reserves are going to challenge Canada at the international review of the Convention on the Rights of the Child for Canada's systemic negligence toward children. It is this systemic negligence that has led to hundreds and hundreds of suicides across the northern territories as well as children being incarcerated and dropping out.

I would like to ask the member what he thinks it says about a country when children have to take their fight to the United Nations to get attention to the fact that they are not even being provided with schools.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I will follow up on my colleague's last comments which clarify the issue of there being suicides that are related to mental illness and then another swathe of suicides.

When we look at the suicide epidemic--and “epidemic” is a horrific word to use in connection with suicide but I do not know what other word to use--in first nation communities, we must look at children in communities like Kashechewan who experience feelings of hopelessness. When I visited Attawapiskat and Fort Albany I spoke with children in grades 3 and 4 who said they were giving up hope. That is a staggering indictment.

We have seen a slate of suicides in northwestern Ontario where young people have been forced to go to school because there are no schools in their communities. They just disappear. They are missing for days, weeks and months. It seems as if there is a black hole.

What would my hon. colleague suggest to the first nation youth who are falling through the cracks at an astounding rate? What steps are needed to ensure that when a first nation child is in need, that child is not just left to die?

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the speech of my hon. colleague. The suicide epidemics in his region and my region are an international horror story.

I flew into Moose Factory Island, a wonderful island of great people, to be told that they had 13 youth suicides and 80 attempts, meaning that 93 children attempted or succeeded in killing themselves in one year in the town of Moose Factory alone.

At the time the province was shutting down the Payukotayno child welfare services because it said it was in debt. We saw people in absolute shock.

I see this in community after community, and I would like to ask the hon. member what came out of Pikangikum, because it said specifically that children do not even have access to schools. Children are killing themselves because the government will not even bother to build grade schools for them.

I ask my hon. colleague, given that the communities he represents are like mine because children are starving to have basic rights that other children enjoy as a given, why is it, in a country as rich as Canada, that we have a government that thinks building schools is not something it should even be responsible for?

[Ethics, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I understand why the Minister of Foreign Affairs is changing the channel. It is because the guy beside him is a big political liability. Perhaps he will explain.

Where was he when the rules were being broken by the Muskoka minister? Where was he when the Auditor General was being misled? Was he driving shotgun around the back woods while the Muskoka minister had a $4.5 million cheque to give out to a project that did not exist?

Does he believe that the rules apply to everybody else except for that minister and the government?

[Ethics, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we are now 117 days since the President of the Treasury Board started hiding under his desk.

I would like to ask him again about the Lake of Bays project and why he sent out a press release, which was under embargo, bragging about the $4.5 million cheque that he was about to give to the council, even though the council told him that the plan had no viability, which meant that he had to hightail it out of town, chequebook in hand.

Now this would be funny if it did not show such a shocking disregard for the normal checks and balances of spending. Will the minister explain how he got his hands on money for a project that did not exist?

[G8 Summit, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, it is those kinds of answers that show the government's contempt for Canadians and accountability, and it is the Lake of Bays project that shows the minister's irresponsible attitude toward taxpayer spending.

He promoted a scheme that had no business plan, no viability study, no idea of costs or even a construction plan, yet he was willing to throw millions at a project that even the town did not want to have anything to do with.

Why did the Muskoka minister use taxpayers' money to feather his own political bed? Would he stand in this House and explain himself?

[G8 Summit, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, it is now 116 days and counting since the President of the Treasury Board went AWOL, and he still has not explained how he broke all the rules for spending, which leads us to the project in the Lake of Bays.

He actually showed up in town with a cheque for $4.5 million, despite having no signed deal and no business plan. No wonder the town councillors told him they did not want to have anything to do with him. We cannot hand out taxpayers' money from the trunk of a car.

Would the minister stand in this House and explain such tawdry behaviour?

[G8 Summit, September 29th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, Parliament was misled. This is a guy who was buying steel for a hockey arena with border infrastructure money that had not even been approved by Parliament. It is the minister's emails, his influence peddling and his misuse of taxpayers' dollars.

If this was good news, why did he tell the mayor to keep his mouth shut? This is about an abuse of public trust. It has been 112 days of this charade of hiding behind the foreign affairs minister. Will that member stand and come clean to the Canadian people?

[G8 Summit, September 29th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we are now 112 days and counting and here is something new about the Muskoka boondoggle. When the mayor set out to buy steel for the hockey arena, even though it had not been approved by Parliament, the Muskoka minister did not tell him to wait. He wrote, “Hey, thanks for the update, Claude. Is it possible to go ahead with the purchase without making an official announcement? Otherwise I would be put in an uncomfortable position”.

It is not just uncomfortable, it is wrong. He cannot spend taxpayer dollars on the sly. If the minister disagrees with this assessment, then maybe he should stand and explain to Parliament why.