David McGuinty

[Lobbying, April 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities is not the only one hiding information.

We have just learned that the Minister of the Environment has finally sent documents to the committee. Why are the rest of his colleagues not following his example?

We know that the former director of operations for the Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario discussed three projects with Patrick Glémaud, but the committee has not received any documents to this effect. Mr. Jaffer's email to the Minister of Industry's office is also being kept hidden.

When will Canadians have the right to see all of these documents?

[Lobbying, April 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Infrastructure told the government operations committee that he has handed over “all documents” that he has and “additional documents” from his parliamentary secretary, and yet there are missing pages in what he provided.

His office gave still more documents to the media that were never sent to the committee, some of which, once again, included highly relevant, handwritten notes like “From Rahim, submit to department”.

Will the government hand over all documents to the committee and ensure they are delivered in time for questioning the next round of witnesses?

[Ethics, April 26th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, because he wanted to conceal the facts and delay disclosing them, the minister's mea culpa only raises new questions.

Why did he want to hide the meeting from Canadians for so long? Why would he not admit that the meeting took place in the former minister's Ottawa office? Instead of sinking deeper into this Conservative culture of deceit, will the minister finally agree to hand over all the documents related to this matter and that meeting? It is a question of honesty.

[Ethics, April 26th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, on Friday afternoon the environment minister stood in this House and disclosed that his political director of regional affairs met with Mr. Jaffer last year.

While he made it seem like this was new information, he in fact knew last Tuesday. It seems he did not want anyone to know about this when Mr. Jaffer testified at committee the very next day. It is time to end the Conservative culture of deceit.

Will the minister confirm that his political director of regional affairs, who is from Calgary, actually met with Mr. Jaffer here in Ottawa in the former Status of Women minister's office?

[Earth Day, April 22nd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Celebrated each year on April 22, Earth Day is the most popular ecological event in the world.

More than 6 million Canadians are joining 1 billion people in over 170 countries to organize activities and projects about local environmental issues. Almost all schoolchildren in this country will participate in an Earth Day activity.

This yearly celebration increases our environmental awareness at a time when Canadians want much more national leadership on the environment.

The phenomenal success of local environmental programs such as One Change, launched in my riding of Ottawa South, which has now gone international, demonstrates that Canadians want to do the right thing when it comes to the environment.

On this 40th Earth Day, I want to encourage and congratulate all Canadians taking part in Earth Day activities, and encourage the government to show leadership on the environment.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, April 19th, 2010]

With respect to funding for aid in the Horn of Africa Countries (Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia): (a) what is the government spending on development aid in each of the Horn of Africa countries, broken down by state, province, district and urban area; (b) what role is Canada taking in the training of security forces in each of the Horn of Africa countries, broken down by state, province, district and urban area; (c) what support, logistical or otherwise, is Canada providing to African Union forces; (d) what institutional and capacity building projects funded by Canada, directly or indirectly, are underway or under consideration in each of the Horn of Africa countries, broken down by state, province, district and urban area; (e) what are the overall Canadian aid levels or aid flows for each of the Horn of Africa countries, broken down by state, province, district and urban area; (f) who are the Canadian and international executing agencies currently delivering aid in all of its forms to each of the Horn of Africa countries, broken down by state, province, district and urban area; (g) how many of these agencies are Canadian; and (h) exhaustively, what bilateral and multilateral aid is provided by Canada in either the United Nations or any United Nations agencies or regional development banks such as the African Development Bank, including trust funds, for each of the Horn of Africa countries, broken down by state, province, district and urban area?

[Business of Supply, April 14th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member, who is the chair of the environment committee, to answer a couple of specific questions.

First of all, according to his own analysis of the motion, he should have no problem supporting it. He says that the government has accomplished everything the motion calls upon it to do. If that is the case, then the Conservative members as a whole should stand later today and support the motion.

Second, I would like to ask him this. Could he tell us right now, if we are harmonized with the United States, what is the price of carbon going to be under both legislative bills in the House? What and how serious is the discussion right now by President Obama to impose a carbon tariff on this country?

[Business of Supply, April 14th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, it is barely deserving of a response except to say this. At Copenhagen, Canada was badly marginalized and thoroughly embarrassed. We saw leaked documents surface about exempting the oil sands from greenhouse gas reduction targets.

I personally witnessed the chief of staff of the minister having a major, massive emotional meltdown on camera, attacking a very prominent NGO leader from Quebec. Canada of course won the fossil of the year award.

It is very important at this stage to take out this rhetoric. Let us get a good plan for Canada so we can deal with this crisis.

[Business of Supply, April 14th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, It is interesting. Just several months ago, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute, backed by TD Canada Trust and with work done by Simon Fraser University in terms of economic modelling, brought out the only robust piece of analysis for Canada that we have seen in 52 months. It was the only one to talk about how we could achieve these reductions, while growing our economy and what the effects would be.

The reaction of the government was to attempt to shoot and kill the messenger. The Minister of the Environment stood up, held a press conference and attacked one of Canada's top economists at the TD Bank. I guess it was because that economist participated in a document that spoke truth to power.

This is the kind of activity that has been going on. We would like to remove all of that from this important issue. We would like a non-partisan group of experts to help us design the trajectory for the next 40 years to achieve the reductions we know we can achieve and create the jobs we know we can create.

[Business of Supply, April 14th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, that is a question better placed to the government. It was the government that made the commitment, and I stand corrected, at the G20. However, the Liberal Party will not seize upon the energy sector as some kind of whipping boy in Canada.

We understand that when energy investments were beginning in our country some three or four decades ago, there was a decision made at the time to favour investment in those sectors, start those motors and start up that whole sector. Now we know so much more about the climate change crisis. We know so much more about renewable power and tilting the playing field in favour of renewable power.

We will not single out any one industrial sector in Canada and try to make it the bad guy or bad gal. Instead, we want to see a national plan through a non-partisan group of experts that could advise the House of Commons.