Jean Chrétien

[Code Of Ethics, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I explained earlier that this fundraising exercise by every party in the House and every member of Parliament is a normal act of democracy.

If someone is proposing that the government pay all the expenses of all the candidates, I will entertain that possibility, but it is not the way we are functioning here.

We ask the people to contribute, but there is a clear rule that everybody who contributes $100 or more has to be known by the public. This week, every contribution received by every member of this House will become public. The amount of money that every member of Parliament has contributed will be known. It is

the way we operate in Canada. It is the most open system there is.

Ministers and members of Parliament meet with people who want to contribute to the party. That is very open, very public, and there is no conflict of interest because everybody is informed.

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, when the hon. member is able to make a precise accusation that someone paid for a contract, I will do what I have to do. I have been around here for a long time. I know that they are chickens. They make broad statements, never being able to pin down any contract relating to contributions. When they do that we will do what is the right thing to do. With respect to innuendoes made by people who cannot make an accusation, I do not spend a lot of time on chickens of that kind.

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, everything has been done according to the rules, the legislation and the guidelines which we have initiated.

Fundraising is an occupation of all parties. I have a list of all the contributions the Reform Party has received. I will not read it. It is legitimate. I am not complaining. That party received the money. The list is public. The people who contributed to the Reform Party have contributed to the Liberal Party, to the Conservative Party and sometimes to the Bloc Quebecois. It is normal.

If you have an accusation to make, if you can link a contribution to a contract, make the accusation-

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Joyal said his ticket was paid for by Madam Lambert.

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I have said that everything has been done according to the rules and regulations of the government and the laws of Parliament.

I am involved regularly. I was in the city of Calgary this year and it was the biggest fundraiser we ever had in Calgary. I was in Edmonton and it was the biggest fundraiser we ever had in Edmonton. We do that all the time. It is the democratic way to raise money. We had a great dinner in the riding of the Deputy Prime Minister not long ago. It is all public. The press is invited. Everybody is there and can take notes. We do that.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage is like other ministers. When he is invited to a fundraiser he attends. It is absolutely normal to do that because the contributions are public. Nothing is hidden. It is according to the law, according to the regulations and according to the directives I gave to the ministers.

[Ethics, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out to the hon. member that the legislation on transparency was tabled in this Parliament by the former Liberal government, of which I was a member. It is a law.

Although the law did not oblige them to, if the Bloc Quebecois has nothing to hide, why did it refuse, after the 1993 elections, to disclose the contributions it had received?

In our case, all contributions we received we made public. We were required to do so and we were happy to do so, because we comply with the law that the Liberal Party adopted in this House.

[Ethics, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has contravened none of our rules or directives. He did not use any list from his department. The people he met were people who had contributed voluntarily to the Liberal Party. This is the way it works in all parties. Everything we do in the Liberal Party is public knowledge. Receipts are issued, people can check.

This is very different from what happened in the 1993 elections, when members of the Bloc Quebecois refused to provide, they were not obliged to do so, but they refused to provide the list of contributions they received in the 1993 elections, and the law did not require them to. When the press asked them to disclose their contributions, they decided not to. They were not obliged to do so at the time. Only this year they will be obliged to do so.

In the matter we are discussing, however, the contributions are public and the receipts are public. Everything is public. The minister did only what every member does and what every minister does: during party fundraising campaigns they make themselves available so we may do our democratic duty, which is to have enough funds that the public knows about available for an election.

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, as the minister said earlier, all the regulations have been followed. All the contributions have been made public. We have the list of all contributions that have been made to the Liberal Party, to the Conservative Party, to the Reform Party. Some of the contributors to this function had contributed in 1993 to the Reform Party.

[Government Finance, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, a few days earlier, I had had the privilege to meet with some of the leaders of the trade union movements in G-7 countries. Our meeting lasted several hours and, obviously, their positions differed from that of the International Chamber of Commerce. Like the good Liberal that I am, I found myself squarely in the middle, between these two positions.

[Government Finance, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Dunkel is one of the members of the delegation, not the chairman. I find his recipe is a little strong for my taste. I think that there is a way to get public finances under control, in Canada for example, without cutting social programs excessively. This is, by the way, the position which the Minister of Finance took in the budget tabled in February.