John Baird

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, no one is more disappointed than the Prime Minister about this conduct. Canadians expect better, and the Prime Minister of Canada expects better.

What Canadians expect also is for the NDP to come clean and answer this question: Why did it take 17 long years for the leader of the NDP to admit being offered cash in an envelope by the then mayor of Laval?

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the Senator's expenses have been referred to the Board of Internal Economy in the other place. They are currently being reviewed. They are currently being reviewed by an outside auditing firm, and those reviews will both properly be made public.

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister was unaware of this deal until Wednesday, May 15. No commitments were made. What was said is that all members of Parliament are responsible to act ethically. All members of Parliament in both Houses are expected to act honourably and to expense only those expenses they incurred and are allowed to under the law. This was not done in this case. These people should pay back the money.

All members of the House of Commons and all members of the Senate should act responsibly. It is a tremendous privilege and honour. People should be advancing the public interests and not their own interests. That is the deal with this Prime Minister. That is the deal with this government.

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Nigel Wright has taken sole responsibility. He has offered his resignation, and that resignation was immediately accepted by the Prime Minister. It is a tremendous honour and a tremendous privilege for Canadians to serve in the Parliament of Canada, and they should be here each and every day advancing the public interests and not advancing their own private interests.

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said that for any member of Parliament or any senator who has expensed money that was improper, the money should be immediately refunded. That is exactly what he said at this time.

We would like to see the NDP follow the Prime Minister's lead, answer the questions and say why it took 17 long years for Canadians not to be able to learn about these frauds. How much bribery went on in those 17 long years? How much money has been wasted with the Charbonneau commission if the leader of the NDP had not stayed silent?

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the first piece of legislation the Prime Minister brought forward was legislation to have a single parliamentary ethics watchdog, one person who would review both the House of Commons and the Senate. It was this House of Commons that passed that legislation and, only when it met the hands of the Liberal Senate at the time, the Liberal Senate blocked that proposal and would not pass it. Shame on the Liberal Party.

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this Parliament has spent a good number of months looking at strengthened legislation on ethics, giving new tools and new powers to parliamentary ethics watchdogs. We will fully co-operate with any of these reviews, as people would properly expect. These office holders have a significant amount of authority to conduct these investigations, and most importantly, they will report publicly on those investigations.

What we would like to see from the Liberal Party of Canada is for its members to come clean about the offshore tax havens with millions of dollars. Why will they not come clean with Canadians on that?

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it was this House that brought in legislation giving the tools to independent watchdogs for them to be able to consider these matters. What we are simply doing is following Canadian law, as passed by this House, as passed by this Parliament, to look into these matters. This issue has been referred to at least two independent authorities. The government will completely co-operate with these authorities.

I wish the Liberal Party would co-operate with investigations into secret trust funds and offshore tax havens, too.

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, when the issue of Senator Duffy's expenses came up and it was problematic, the Prime Minister said, which one would expect a strong leader to say, that any expenses that were improperly billed should be immediately refunded, because that is what honest people do.

What honest people should also do is not wait 17 long years when they were offered a bribe and should have told the police the truth right away when it initially happened.

[Ethics, June 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is well known that this issue is being considered by a number of independent bodies that were set up to independently look into these types of situations. The government has said very clearly that we will co-operate with these types of bodies.

In the spirit of co-operation, maybe of the leader of the NDP should co-operate with the Charbonneau commission and offer the information he has of bribes he was offered some 17 years ago.