House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2015, with 61% of the vote.
Supply June 4th, 2002
Madam Chairman, in the spirit of the work that was done here tonight, as the parliamentary secretary talked about, as parliamentarians we are here doing a job for our electorate and they expect us to be here. However, we have a tremendous amount of staff who have hung in here with us tonight, the pages, the clerks, the Speakers, the security guards. They deserve a round of applause. We could not do it without them.
Government Contracts May 30th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the list grows. Week after week and day after day we see more and more things hitting the RCMP. I hope it has enough members and budget to take it all in.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see that giving huge commissions to Liberal friendly ad companies is just bilking the taxpayers for more money. It is greed and corruption: no reports, no files and verbal contracts, just cancelled Liberal donation cheques, which is really all we can go on.
All these ministers were sitting in cabinet when this scheme was hatched and implemented. How can they not see that it will take an outside independent public inquiry to clear the air?
Government Contracts May 30th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal scheme for doling out taxpayer money by passing it through the sticky fingers of their friends is truly unacceptable to Canadians. Lafleur Communications, a fishing buddy of the justice minister, donated $57,000 to the Liberals after receiving a $120,000 commission for taking $1 million in a briefcase down the street to VIA Rail.
When we see options like that out there in front of taxpayers, what they are crying for is a truly independent public inquiry. When will the minister set one up?
Government Contracts May 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, whether the proposal is accepted or not is irrelevant. It has no bearing on the facts. Did the minister specifically point out to the RCMP commissioner that Holland College, where the president is his brother, or did he actually say, would be a great place for this thing to go if they were going to do it? Yes or no.
Government Contracts May 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, at least now we know why the Prime Minister went to Rome. It is going to take an affidavit from the Pope to help out the solicitor general on this one.
Did the solicitor general specifically speak to the RCMP commissioner in regard to a $3.5 million program? Yes or no.
Government Contracts May 27th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, certainly everyone knows that an independent public inquiry would have a larger scope and broader list of witnesses than anything we can do in the House. We would ask for that again and again.
The latest skeleton out of the coffin of the Liberal ethics graveyard comes courtesy of another Montreal ad company and more missing reports. In spite of never having donated before, it did not forget to cut a cheque for the Liberal Party for $20,000 after it got the contract. It made $38,000 in commissions and then the Liberals gave it $116,000 to do a post mortem report. We cannot find it. Where are the reports?
Government Contracts May 27th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, it really does not surprise us on this side. The reports do not exist so why should there by any lists that exist? No wonder he has a problem finding them.
The Prime Minister noted the other day that some of the seats in this place have ejector buttons. I guess all of Canada is watching to see if the minister of the month will be able to keep riding his for a little while.
Will the Minister of Public Works and Government Services order an immediate independent public inquiry into this fiasco?
Government Contracts May 24th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, as usual the government ministers are wearing out their own credibility and the patience of all Canadians by hiding behind obscurity, sleight of hand and treasury board guidelines that can be shifted back and forth.
As these files progress, it is not difficult for anybody out there to connect the dots and see a clear picture of Liberal abuse of ethics.
We all know there are very special relationships between the minister of public works and Groupe Everest. Will the government at least freeze all business with Groupe Everest until a full public inquiry can be held?
Government Contracts May 24th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, yesterday the public works minister tried to deflect his personal responsibility for another untendered contract for $56,000 to Groupe Everest by saying that he was not the minister at the time.
As usual, that answer was totally irrelevant and inaccurate. He was personally in charge of the Francophonie games and it was his office that negotiated that untendered contract.
In light of the fact that the Prime Minister and the minister of public works both admit that mistakes were made and continued to be made, which is a great start, is the Prime Minister, in his newfound zeal for ethics, ready to commit to a fully independent judicial inquiry?
Supply May 23rd, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I do not think there is ever an invaluable day in the House.
When we bring forward issues like this one where we are talking about corruption of government and the perception of the people out there, the problem is that this is the foundation which ordinary citizens, the electorate, think we are based on. We have to fix it in order to get out of their heads the thought process that we are incorrigible. We have to fix that and then get on with the agriculture, health care and defence issues and everything else that has been let slide for the last nine years. Certainly we know there are hundreds of issues out there to fix because no one has attacked them.
In my province of Saskatchewan the government has not fixed the highways or spent the proper money on them for 10 years. Now there is a flurry to fill pot holes that we could lose cars in. The same thing has happened in this place. We have let it slide to the point where we cannot address the major issues because everything has been permeated with that air of corruption.