Jean Chrétien

[The Canadian Armed Forces, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, as the defence minister said on several occasions two days ago, yesterday and today, the government hopes that the commission will fulfil its mandate to shed light on what occurred in Somalia.

This is the commission's mandate and we hope to get the report as soon as possible, so that, if changes must be made within the armed forces structure because of these incidents, the defence minister will be in a position to make them as quickly as possible. If the commission wants to report before March, this will be fine with us.

[The Canadian Armed Forces, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, it is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to appoint someone to the cabinet when he decides to do so. The minister handed me his resignation for very honourable reasons and I accepted it with much regret. I maintain that he has done an extraordinary job as Minister of National Defence, under extremely difficult circumstances.

The previous government had seven defence ministers in nine years. The minister who resigned last Friday succeeded in making huge cuts and in reducing military personnel, including the number of generals, which went down from 125 to 70. The former minister has earned the thanks of this House for a job well done.

[Employment, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, to give one example, because of the good management of this government the interest rate went down by 3 per cent or 4 per cent in the last year and a few months.

Somebody with a mortgage of $50,000 will pay $1,500 less after tax. Somebody with a $100,000 mortgage will pay $3,000 less after tax. Somebody who has bought a car for $15,000 will pay $500 less in interest each year. This is because we have a good Minister of Finance and a good government.

[Employment, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I remember campaigning, and the only problem the country faced at that time was the reduction of the deficit. That was the only speech the leader of the third party had. It is amazing that he has not found a new one.

Jobs have been created in Canada; more than in Italy, more than in Germany, more than in France and more than in Great Britain all together.

It is not a priority of this government to give a 10 per cent tax cut to those with a million dollar per year income. When we have room our priority will be to make sure that some of the benefits will go first to those in society who need them most. That is certainly not the preoccupation of the member from the third party.

[Employment, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, we have a very definite plan concerning that. We have managed to create 665,000 new jobs in the Canadian economy over three years. We have also managed to run the economy with 1.5 per cent inflation.

The Minister of Finance, in addressing the problem of the government's deficit, has always managed to do better than the plan he had put forward. That is the way we do things. In two years time there will be no need for the government to borrow money, something that has not been done in the last 25 years.

[The Canadian Armed Forces, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, this entire incident of last week was made public, and the decisions were made before the press was informed. I was informed on the Wednesday morning. I was informed, and the Minister of Defence received Mr. Wilson's opinion on the Thursday. He came to see me at 6 p.m. and I accepted his resignation the following morning. I think that this is totally reasonable.

It amuses me a great deal that the opposition has nothing much to say against the government and has to resort to rehashing the past. I must therefore congratulate my entire cabinet for doing a good job with the rest of government, since the opposition has nothing to say these days.

[The Canadian Armed Forces, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, General Boyle had testified, and had himself said that he was not aware of certain facts which the commission was investigating in this connection.

In the performance of his duties as chief of defence staff, he has done a good job. He had a very difficult task, arriving as the new head of the Armed Forces just as the commission was starting up. That was hard. This was the first time in history that there had been an inquiry of this nature. I believe that General Boyle did his best, and acquitted himself honourably. At the end, he realized that he was the subject of controversy and he submitted his resignation in a most honourable manner, and I accepted it.

As for myself, should the commission comment on this at some point, I shall have something to say, but it is the custom in Canada-and a very good one-that no one is declared guilty until there is a verdict.

[The Canadian Armed Forces, October 9th, 1996]

As I stated in the House, I was informed in the morning that there was a problem, not one connected in any way to the duties of the Minister of Defence, but perhaps one connected to the performance of his duties as a member of Parliament serving one of his constituents.

I therefore referred the problem to Mr. Wilson, the ethics counsellor. I did not know what his conclusions were going to be, but I had confidence in the Minister of Defence, as always. I repeat that he did an excellent job in his three years as Minister of Defence, both for the Department of National Defence and for Canada.

[Access To Information, October 8th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, every day, hundreds and even thousands of information requests are made by journalists, academics and members of Parliament. It costs millions of dollars for the public service to find the related documents.

My office was informed on Tuesday evening. I was personally informed on Wednesday morning, and the minister handed me his resignation on Friday morning. I think the government did what it had to do. Once we were informed, we took action within hours.

[Access To Information, October 8th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the government is the government. The Privy Council must ensure that what goes on in all the departments is co-ordinated and that, if there is any problem in the public administration, the Prime Minister is informed.

Putting in place the necessary mechanisms to know what goes on in the public service is the first rule of good management for a Prime Minister. This is precisely the way I run the government.