Michel Guimond

[Supply, March 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the members of the Bloc Québécois will be voting against this motion, I would ask you to add the name of the member for Sherbrooke to the list.

[Sponsorship Program, March 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, on March 3, 2004, the Minister of Transport stated, just before the last election campaign, and I quote, “We have no intention of campaigning with tainted money”.

Will the government admit that if it does not immediately seek to recover the sponsorship funds paid to the Liberal Party, the latter will run a fourth election campaign with dirty money? This is totally unacceptable.

[Sponsorship Program, March 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, this is a minority government, and a general election could be called at any time.

Will the government admit that it must take immediate action to recover sponsorship funds from the Liberal Party? Otherwise there might be a fourth election campaign during which the Liberal Party would campaign on dirty money, after 1997, 2000, 2004 and perhaps 2005.

[Sponsorship Program, March 21st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, that is a double standard. When the government was informed that too much money had been paid to the advertising agencies, it began legal proceedings to recover the money. In the case of sponsorship money paid to the Liberal Party, what the Minister of Transport called “dirty money”, the Prime Minister should act promptly.

Does he realize that, if he does not act right away, he will be guilty of conflict of interest, since everyone will understand that the decision has been made by the leader of the Liberal Party rather than the leader of the government?

[Sponsorship Program, March 21st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the Gomery commission has revealed how the sponsorship scandal encouraged the payment of $70,000 by Jean Brault of Groupaction to Liberal Party organizers and the Liberal Party itself.

Will the Prime Minister admit that it is his responsibility to ensure the government takes immediate steps to recover the sponsorship money paid to the Liberal Party of Canada?

[Sponsorship Program, March 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, on February 20, 2004, the Minister of Transport, former head of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada, and now a member of this House, said in an interview with La Presse that Deloitte & Touche had been given “a very broad mandate” to track the sponsorship money.

How could the Minister of Transport make such a statement at that time when, in reality, the mandate was extremely narrow and there was no possibility whatsoever of identifying the bulk of the contributors involved in the sponsorship scandal?

[Sponsorship Program, March 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Transport did indicate, several times, that all the dirty money from the sponsorship scandal would be found and taken out of the Liberal Party coffers.

How can the Prime Minister claim that the dirty money will be paid back when the Deloitte & Touche report that was supposed to identify this money makes no mention of the nine employees at Lafleur Communication who were strongly urged to contribute $1,000 each to the Liberal Party? How can we shed any light with such an incomplete report?

[Sponsorship Program, March 9th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, we have seen the definition of better value during Jean Lafleur's testimony before the Gomery commission. He kept on saying for four days that the Government of Canada had got value for money.

For two weeks now, we have watched the process emerging. We have government contracts being awarded to cronies, direct solicitation of funds, and requests to organize fundraising. In short, we see the process.

I am putting this question to the Minister of Transport, because he is the one who spoke about tainted money. Does he include the tainted money that went to finance the Liberal Party in this?

[Sponsorship Program, March 9th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, now we know how the organizers of the Quebec section of the Liberal Party of Canada finance their election campaign. Jacques Corriveau had only to complain at a supper with Jean Pelletier and Alfonso Gagliano in December 1997 to end up with millions of dollars in government subcontracts, which enabled him to get paid for the Liberal campaign signs he had made for the 1997 campaign.

Can the Minister of Transport deny that the sponsorship money went to cancel out the Liberal Party debt with Jacques Corriveau for those campaign signs?

[Dominique Maltais and Stéphane Agnard, March 8th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw attention to the performance by Dominique Maltais of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François last December in Austria, as she earned her first gold medal in snowboard cross. She faced some very stiff competition from all four corners of the world.

This is the first year on the world cup circuit for the 24-year-old snowboarder, who is also a Montreal fire prevention services employee.

For the first time in the history of this sport, two Quebec athletes both won gold medals, as Mont-Tremblant's Jasey-Jay Anderson came out on top in the men's competition.

I must also draw to your attention the meteoric rise of freestyle skier Stéphane Agnard of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. His series of strong showings have won him a spot on the team for all the end-of-season events.

Once again, congratulations to Dominique Maltais and Stéphane Agnard, both of my riding of Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, and the best of luck for the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006.