Jean Chrétien

[Government Contracts, May 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I have been a member of this House for a very long time, and there is a well established and very appropriate principle whereby the personal problems of MPs are not within the public domain.

The reported incident occurred before the member became a minister. At the time, he was dealing with his private life. He does not have to talk about it to anyone, and nor do we want MPs to be required to answer questions from journalists, regardless of their position in the House, and this applies any day of the week.

[Government Contracts, May 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, members only had to listen to the explanation of Mr. Wilson when he appeared on CTV on Sunday afternoon. He explained the difficulty that we were facing at that time. He is advising everybody.

I have asked him to report to the House of Commons. We hope that the House of Commons on both sides will agree to have an ethics counsellor that will be for all members of parliament, including ministers, for their duties as members of parliament and reporting to the House of Commons. It will be in front of parliament in October.

[Government Contracts, May 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I had to make some changes in the cabinet so I had a discussion with the House leader. We came to the conclusion that he was a very good House leader and it was better for him to be there at this moment because the minister of public works was willing to take on the task. I changed my ministers according to the present need.

The House leader graciously accepted the transfer. The minister of public works of today became the minister of public works Sunday afternoon.

[Government Contracts, May 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, Saturday afternoon at 5 o'clock.

[Ethics, May 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, in a project that we announced two weeks ago we said that the ethics counsellor would be reporting his activities to the House of Commons annually. He is an ethics counsellor advising members of parliament, ministers, myself, bureaucrats and so on. I have asked him to report from now on to the House of Commons and he has obliged.

[Ethics, May 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is the duty of every member of parliament to work for his constituents, especially in a case like that when it was a project that created 22 new jobs. The loan was the third loan. Two other loans had been accepted by the Caisse populaire and the fund of the unions in the area. The third loan was from the bank. It was eventually approved. After seven years the loan was paid back every month.

It is a duty of a member of parliament to create jobs in his riding.

[Government Contracts, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member is not being kept very busy, since the arrival of the new leader, he should go back to school to learn that the transaction was completed at the time the cheque was accepted by the owner, and then he can quit making insinuations.

A first year law student, in Quebec civil law or English common law, knows very well that a transaction is completed at the moment a cheque is accepted.

[Government Contracts, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it strikes me that we are now in a very interesting area. A first year law student knows that a contract is complete when the two parties exchange the will, so when the cheque is signed and accepted, the transaction is over. They should go back to school.

[Government Contracts, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I graduated from law school some 40 years ago. I still remember that a transaction is completed when the will is received.

When the lady signed the cheque, the payment was made, legally speaking. The person who signed the cheque could not do anything, except pay. This is taught in first year of law school in the province of Quebec.

[Government Contracts, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, we have spoken about this every day in the House of Commons. We cannot be any more open than that. With the opposition asking questions in the House of Commons, there is no need for a public inquiry.

Furthermore, the auditor general, who reports to the House of Commons, is in the process of studying the matter. This is an officer of the House of Commons whom we trust.

Members of the House are free to ask us all the questions they like. We cannot be any more open than we are being right now.