John Baird

[Access to Information, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, Justice Gomery's report has been taken very seriously on this side of the House. We read it as soon as we received it. And the first thing we did in this House was to introduce the Federal Accountability Act.

This is the greatest piece of legislation in the history of Canada to fight corruption. In this legislation, there are not 5, not 10, but 30 new government organizations that are now subject to the Access to Information Act. We are very proud of the fact that there is greater access to information. Furthermore, we wish—

[Softwood Lumber, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I know the Prime Minister and the Minister of International Trade brought back from Washington $4.5 billion of Canadian funds.

We took more action in six or seven short months than the previous Liberal government did in six or seven years. We have nothing to apologize for but the good economic times that will assist an industry with many problems.

[Softwood Lumber, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it is passing strange to take lectures from the Liberal Party opposite, the party that brought us Gagliano, the party that brought us Dingwall, the party that brought us the member for Eglinton—Lawrence.

This government has a higher ethical standard. We have a stringent proactive disclosure system. We want to even expand the rules by bringing in the federal accountability act, the toughest piece of anti-corruption legislation ever in Canadian history. We hope the member opposite will use his influence with the Liberal Senate to get that law passed immediately.

[Homelessness, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I want to be very clear to the member for London—Fanshawe that this government has no intention of cutting SCPI.

[Minister of Public Works and Government Services, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is entitled to his own opinion, but the Leader of the Opposition is not entitled to his own facts.

In fact, I appeared as President of the Treasury Board before the operations committee, the secretary of the Treasury Board appeared, and the assistant deputy minister of the Treasury Board appeared, all last week.

[Infrastructure, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, another day and another gift from the member for Wascana.

The member for Wascana has the nerve to stand in his place in the House and talk about breaking confidentiality. I remind the member opposite about the income trust scandal, where literally tens of thousands of hard-working senior citizens lost millions of dollars because of the blabbermouth member for Wascana.

[Infrastructure, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the quick answer to that question is no.

I can tell the member for Wascana this. At least our budget is not subject to the whims of the New Democratic Party.

[Government Programs, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, when the Liberal Party was in government, the most vulnerable in society were taxpayers.

We saw the billion dollar boondoggle at HRDC. We saw another billion dollar boondoggle when it came to the long gun registry. We saw, literally, millions of dollars misspent and misdirected, some of it even into the coffers of the Liberal Party.

Thank goodness we have a Prime Minister and a government that stand with ordinary taxpayers and fight for them.

[Government Programs, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, we are looking at all government expenditures to ensure that they are achieving the results they were intended to achieve. It is something that is tremendously important.

Rather than put funds to have conferences and symposiums, rather than put funds to have advocacy, which was so popular among the previous government members, we want to focus on something unique. We want to focus on actually helping people learn to read and write.

[Infrastructure, October 18th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Kitchener Centre is obviously not reading the same stories in the Ottawa Citizen that I am reading. Here is what it said last week, “unprecedented scope of the investment...makes a final, ratifying endorsement entirely appropriate”. An Ottawa Citizen headline this morning said that the majority backed me on the light rail delay.