John Baird

[G8 Summit, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce to members of the House that of the 23,000 projects that this government funded under Canada's economic action plan, we did not pay one cent of money over budget.

[Libya, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, my first thoughts are with the Libyan people, not with their former dictator.

We have offered in Tripoli, directly to the leadership of the new government in Libya, President Jalil and to Acting Prime Minister Jibril, support for democratic development in terms of how they could draft a constitution, how they could build a better justice system, how they could conduct elections. We have offered a substantial amount of support where I think Canada can contribute.

Second, we have offered assistance to demilitarize the country. That is tremendously important. A lot of shoulder-to-air missiles have gone missing, and we are obviously very concerned about the large stockpile of chemical weapons. They pose a danger not just to the people of Libya, but also to the broader international community.

[Libya, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I visited Tripoli last week to give Libya's interim president a direct offer of assistance and support in two very important areas: democratic development and the demilitarization of the country. These two objectives are very important. We announced approximately $10 million in aid for the new Libyan government, which was very pleased with our offer of assistance.

[Libya, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we are also very proud of the Canadian Forces who, once again, have contributed to democracy and human rights. They have done very good work under the leadership of General Charles Bouchard. He was the leader of the entire NATO mission. We were very proud of their contribution.

We will continue to work with the new Libyan government on advancing democracy and demilitarizing the country. These two goals are very important. We have already committed to that through our ambassador. I was in Tripoli last week to offer help to the new government.

[Libya, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, obviously the military mission is very quickly coming to an end. The UN-sanctioned mission to protect Libyan civilians from Gadhafi's regime has certainly accomplished its goal.

We are working now on diplomatic efforts. I visited Tripoli just last week, where we announced up to $10 million to support two things: one, democratic development in Libya, and two, the demilitarization of the country. Those are obviously two important priorities.

Our embassy is now back open and our ambassador is on the ground. We are going to do everything we can to support the new government.

[Human Rights, October 20th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I know I would speak for all members of the House to offer our sincere condolences to the family of Jamie Hubley. Bullying, homophobia, intolerance and incivility have no place in our schools. It underlies the real challenge of depression and mental health, especially among young people.

Let us resolve, as a society, to promote tolerance and acceptance of each and every one of our fellow citizens.

[G8 Summit, October 20th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we approved some 23,000 infrastructure programs in every corner of the country. We gave every province its full per capita share. We worked with NDP, Liberal and Conservative governments from coast to coast to coast. We were able to deliver a lot of new jobs. In doing so, on 32 of those 23,000 projects, the auditor general levelled some serious observations. We fully accepted those observations, and we will do an even better job next time.

[G8 Summit, October 20th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite speaks about the sense of humour of the President of the Treasury Board. That is rather interesting.

Infrastructure Canada co-operated fully with the auditor general. The auditor general did a thorough review of this issue. She made a number of observations and recommendations, which this government completely accepted, on how we could be even more open and more transparent to the House of Commons.

[G8 Summit, October 19th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I would command the member to review the committee hearings on infrastructure where he will see the NDP member for Winnipeg Centre being quoted as saying, “I believe the money was fairly well distributed. NDP ridings did fairly well”, and I agree.

[G8 Summit, October 19th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, this government fully co-operated with the Auditor General. Sheila Fraser did an outstanding job for Canadians. She reviewed the 32 projects where every single dollar has been accounted for. Every single dollar went for public infrastructure. Every single project came in on or under budget. The fund itself was under spent.

With respect to the Auditor General, the Auditor General saw the leadership that the President of the Treasury Board was taking to try to rein in government spending and offered to voluntarily participate. That is leadership.

Mr. Speaker, while I am on my feet, we look forward to you participating too.