Gerald Keddy

[Sponsorship Program, February 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal sponsorship scandal is a grievous breach of the public trust and a serious waste of taxpayers' money.

Nova Scotia in the past year has faced several financial challenges as a result of storms, floods and hurricanes. The $250 million wasted on the sponsorship scandal is roughly equal to the average annual taxes paid by 30,000 Nova Scotians. In other words, almost all of the taxes paid by 30,000 Nova Scotians last year simply vanished.

Other choices would have better served the South Shore. The sponsorship money would have paid eight years of salary for 20 new nurses in my riding. It would have hired 20 police officers for eight years and given each of them a new cruiser. It would have paid four years of university tuition for 360 deserving South Shore students, and that is only 1/25th of the money the Liberals gave to their friends. The money belonged to the citizens of Canada, not Liberal cronies.

From coast to coast, Canadians deserve better.

[Sponsorship Program, February 20th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, obviously the writing was on the wall for the member of Parliament for Beauce. However it is a clear misuse of public money, an abuse of parliamentary office and just another chapter in this Liberal culture of corruption.

Will the Minister of Public Works and Government Services demand the money be paid back?

[Sponsorship Program, February 20th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, we do know where some of the sponsorship money went. Several thousand dollars of taxpayer money was misappropriated by one member of Parliament in order to put his name on a Quebec college mural. This was a clear abuse of public funds for the personal advertising benefit of a member of Parliament.

Has the Minister of Public Works and Government Services asked the member of Parliament for Beauce to pay back the $5,600?

[Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, February 13th, 2004]

moved that Bill S-5, an act to protect heritage lighthouses, be read the first time.

Mr. Speaker, it is certainly my pleasure to reintroduce and once again sponsor the heritage lighthouse protection act in this session of Parliament.

Pursuant to Standing Order 86.2, I ask that this important bill be reinstated. Actually, it was my belief that it would be reinstated at committee stage.

(Motion deemed adopted and bill read the first time)

[Agriculture, February 13th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, if the government were to convict everybody who was guilty in this scandal it would not have enough left for a four-handed game of 45.

I ask those members to just look at themselves. They are an embarrassment, an absolutely incredible embarrassment to the history of this nation.

It is incredible that the government feels that it is acceptable to launder $250 million toward Liberal lackeys while neglecting its duties to other Canadians.

The Minister of Finance is not too busy trying to ward off the Liberal sponsorship death--

[Agriculture, February 13th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, in all this scandal, one issue has floated to the top. The Prime Minister has put his personal ambition ahead of the public trust. It forever reminds me of a big bullfrog just jumping from one scandal ridden lily pad to the next as it sinks underneath it.

According to the same Prime Minister, there is no money out there to help farmers affected by BSE but he found $250 million to help his Liberal friends.

[The Senate, February 9th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, that sounded like no to me, but there is a golden opportunity here. With 14 new Senate vacancies within the next 12 months, the Prime Minister has a historic opportunity to allow for elected senators.

The province can elect, the Prime Minister can appoint; it is just that easy. Or is the Prime Minister only interested in deepening the democratic deficit?

[The Senate, February 9th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the government taking responsibility for gun control is like Senate reform; it is a good idea, but it is just not going to happen with those guys.

Alberta has had two elections to prepare for a slate of Senate candidates. Premier Hamm of Nova Scotia has indicated that he is also committed to Senate reform. The Prime Minister could easily commit to appoint senators chosen by the people rather than patronage.

Will the Prime Minister commit to the appointment of elected senators? Plain and simple, will he commit?

[Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, February 4th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I listened very closely to my colleague from the Bloc and I could not help but wonder if he would not agree that this is a more complicated issue than simply a regional issue. If it were only a regional issue, we could say that all the grass fed beef in Nova Scotia should be excluded. There is a good argument for that but that is not how the market system works. We have a North American market.

The fact is we now have had a mad cow, regardless of where that cow came from, in the U.S. and we have had a mad cow in Canada. That means we have the problem on both sides of the border, and there is absolutely no reason for this border to be closed.

I see the Minister of Agriculture here and I would hope that is the system on which he is working.

In the meantime, there are a number of things that we should be able to do right here in Canada, and we can actually start right now. I see the Minister of Agriculture smiling but I think this is a fairly serious issue. We can start by taking the spinal columns out of the food chain. We can remove the brain out of the food chain. That could be done tomorrow. We do not have to wait for that.

It is a government issue and it will require government money, but it will also require determination. If we speak to farmers in the country, at first they were frustrated. Then they were simply suffering from despair. Today they are angry because they see their livelihoods simply washed out through the barn doors. They absolutely do not see anything, not a mention in the throne speech and not a mention from the government on some type of responsible action.

[Taxation, February 4th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the minister recognizes that this is an important issue, but right now woodlot owners are racing against time before their product rots on the ground, and they are being forced to harvest their stumpage because of hurricane Juan.

Again, will the minister find a way to defer that income at 10% a year for 10 years?