John Nater

[Jim Aitcheson, November 27th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the mayor of the Township of Perth South, Jim Aitcheson, following his sudden passing last week. Jim was dedicated to his family and his community. He was a proud life member of the Downie Optimist Club. In politics, he was first elected as a Downie Ward councillor, and he would go on to serve as deputy mayor, mayor and three-term warden of Perth County. Jim served as warden during some of the most challenging times the county has faced. Under Jim's leadership, significant efforts were made to improve mental health supports for first responders and the communities they serve.

Jim was a no-nonsense type of leader, and while some of his advice may have used language that would not be considered parliamentary, we always knew where we stood with Jim. To his wife, Lori, and their kids, Kelly, Tracey and Greg, I want to say that I know they are as proud of him as he was of them.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 19th, 2024]

With regard to usage of the government's fleet of Airbus and Polaris aircraft since April 1, 2024: what are the details of the legs of each flight, including the (i) date, (ii) point of departure, (iii) destination, (iv) number of passengers, (v) names and titles of the passengers, excluding security or Canadian Armed Forces members, (vi) total catering bill related to the flight, (vii) volume of fuel used, or an estimate, (viii) amount spent on fuel, (ix) type of aircraft?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 19th, 2024]

With regard to usage of the government's fleet of Challenger aircraft, since April 1, 2024: what are the details of the legs of each flight, including the (i) date, (ii) point of departure, (iii) destination, (iv) number of passengers, (v) names and titles of the passengers, excluding security or Canadian Armed Forces members, (vi) total catering bill related to the flight, (vii) volume of fuel used, or an estimate, (viii) amount spent on fuel?

[Business of the House, November 7th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it being Thursday, I would like to ask the government House Leader if she would inform the House what business she intends to call before the House for the remainder of this week, as well as the week after our constituency week, and if she could inform the House whether the documents related to the $400-million green slush fund have been tabled, as was ordered by the House?

[Questions on the Order Paper, November 4th, 2024]

With regard to simultaneous interpretation services provided by the Translation Bureau since January 1, 2020: how many requests were received for interpretation at meetings of the Cabinet or its committees where the Translation Bureau was unable to fulfill the request at the originally suggested or scheduled time due to a lack of resources, broken down by calendar year?

[Privilege, October 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, very simply, the RCMP officers can do what they wish with the documents, but the order of this House is that they be provided.

[Privilege, October 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I am not sure about criminality, but there sure is corruption and there sure is disgraceful conduct that we have seen at the green slush fund, where we have conflicted board members voting to give themselves massive amounts of contracts. It is simply unacceptable and that is why these documents need to be provided to the law clerk so they can be forwarded to the RCMP for it to do what it wishes. The documents have to be provided unredacted.

[Privilege, October 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Winnipeg North for his 324th intervention now on this issue.

Let us be very clear: The Prime Minister can release the names at any point he wishes to inside this House where he has the privilege to do so as a parliamentarian.

[Privilege, October 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the member for Brandon—Souris is right. We are talking about a centuries-old tradition that gives Parliament the authority and, in fact, the constitutional authority to call for documents, and virtually the only limitation on this ability to call for documents is that the records have to exist and they have to exist within Canada. It does not matter whether they are written documents or digital documents; these matters are constitutionally obligated when ordered by this House of Commons on behalf of the people of this country to be produced. They must be produced provided they meet those very narrow exclusions about existing within Canada.

However, why is this important? It is important because it is our job as parliamentarians to represent the people in the country and the people are talking to us every day about demanding responses from the tired Liberal government.

[Privilege, October 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, on the first point, the fact that one out of six projects was indeed ineligible is a concern. In addition, of equal or perhaps even greater concern is the number of conflicted projects in the sample that the Auditor General looked at. This means that the board members themselves were voting specifically on matters they ought not to have been voting on. They were voting on enriching their own pockets by voting in favour.

To the second point, I need to correct the member. I have not finished my doctoral dissertation. It was an article I wrote on the Thursday question, not my dissertation, which is a long-languishing project. Perhaps we can get into what the actual topic of my dissertation is another time; it may be slightly out of the scope of this debate. However, I thank the member for his important question.