James Moore

[Sponsorship Program, March 8th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, in Friday's National Post it says, “the government fired VIA Rail president Marc LeFrançois for his alleged role in the sponsorship program”. Saturday's Globe and Mail quotes the transport minister as saying, “The decision to fire Mr. LeFrançois was based on the Auditor General's report”.

The public accounts committee has not yet heard from Mr. LeFrançois and no recommendations have been made at all about his future, so why was he fired? What is the standard for firing heads of crown corporations?

[Sponsorship Program, February 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I would invite the minister responsible to look at the figures, because they show that the government approved an additional $40 million for the program seven months after it had been established that there was something scandalously wrong with the program.

Why did the government approve $40 million for the program when it knew that scandalous if not criminal activities were taking place? Why did it do that? That is a simple question. Why did the government put more money into it?

[Sponsorship Program, February 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, cabinet documents made public today are imploding the Prime Minister's explanation that he really had nothing to do with this and did not know what was going on with the sponsorship program.

The documents show that the Treasury Board approved an additional $40 million on top of what was already its set budget for the sponsorship program seven months after an internal audit found that there were all kinds of scandalous problems within the program.

Why was the $40 million approved by the Treasury Board after it was known that there was a problem with this program?

[Sponsorship Program, February 25th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, what is not appropriate is the whole point of this scandal. What is not appropriate is for somebody to come forward and say “give me money” , and the government then to give money to this person through a Liberal ad firm for the money then to be kicked back to the Liberal Party.

What is it about this system of money going through this circle and going back to the Liberal Party that this minister does not seem to understand?

[Sponsorship Program, February 25th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, Jamie Kelley, a friend of the Minister of the Environment from Victoria, said, “Political parties by their nature support and advocate their supporters and I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with that. That's just the way it is, and that's just the way life works”.

It is no wonder that this gentleman was of course courted to be a Liberal candidate with this kind of mentality.

I want to know philosophically from the Liberal government, do these Liberals and this Prime Minister really believe that it is the role of government to advocate specifically on behalf of their friends and to give them money ahead of other people? Is that the government's agenda?

[Sponsorship Program, February 24th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is failing his test of leadership. The Prime Minister said that if any ministers knew about this scandal, or if they were responsible, they must resign.

One of two things is true. Either the Minister of the Environment knew, in which case he was complicit and by the Prime Minister's standards he must resign, or he did not know, in which case, how can Canadians trust him with billions of dollars in his portfolio? Which is it Mr. Prime Minister?

[Sponsorship Program, February 24th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, on February 13, the day after the sponsorship scandal was known to Canadians, the Prime Minister set the standard. He said anybody who knew about this and did nothing should resign immediately.

The environment minister knew. Why has the Prime Minister not asked for his resignation?

[Sponsorship Program, February 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not pointing fingers; I suppose that is why Alfonso Gagliano is not the ambassador any more, because he is not jumping to any conclusions.

What I want to know and what Canadians want to know is if the Prime Minister wants to clean up the appearance of conflict, scandal and this Liberal money laundering scheme. He knew about this scandal. He had the Auditor General's report in hand on December 12 and he did precisely nothing. He got rid of the program for the future but he did nothing to clean up the mess until a couple of weeks ago because he thought he could run up the date, call a quick election and muddy this over.

If he wants to clean up the appearance here, why did he not do anything on December 12, and will he get accountability here?

[Sponsorship Program, February 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister does not appear to have the public's confidence as a true government leader. The Prime Minister is an expert at blaming others. He has blamed Alfonso Gagliano, the former prime minister, the bureaucracy, and now the heads of crown corporations.

What we want to know is whether he will apply to ministers of his government the same standards applied to Alfonso Gagliano, if ministers of his government are involved in this despicable scandal.

[Sponsorship Program, February 18th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it hardly fixes the problem to give a contract to the very firm that has been involved in these very scandals that we are dealing with right now.

The company, Groupe Everest, is the very same company that has given $77,000 back to the Liberal Party of Canada. It has been given $500,000 in contracts.

The Auditor General's report is supposed to help clean this stuff up. The Prime Minister received the AG's report on December 12. After that, he gave Groupe Everest $500,000. This company, in the past, has kicked back $77,000 to the Liberal Party.

How in the world is anybody supposed to believe that the Prime Minister is cleaning up the mess when he continues to do it?