Peter Kent

[Ethics, January 29th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, there have been no answers to questions coming out of the Ethics Commissioner's report.

The commissioner found that among the laws the Prime Minister broke, the Prime Minister received an illegal gift. The taxpayers are also on the hook for the Prime Minister's decision to receive this illegal gift. Will the Prime Minister repay the almost quarter of a million dollars in security, staffing support, per diems, and technology generated by a holiday trip he should never have taken at the taxpayers' expense?

[Ethics, January 29th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, it is an official document, but I will respect your guidance.

The Prime Minister has made a public statement saying that he will not discuss these findings or the wider revelations raised in the commissioner's 66-page report with the House standing committee on ethics. Does the Prime Minister consider himself above the protocols and practices of this House and his accountability as a member, let alone the Prime Minister, to his fellow MPs?

[Ethics, January 29th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner released “The Trudeau Report” a week after the House rose in December, finding that he broke the—

[Salaries Act, December 12th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for a worthy defence of what we in the official opposition consider this legislation to be: damage control of the Prime Minister's original flawed decision.

Because this amends the Salaries Act, I wonder if he could address the fact that the mistake was made more than two years ago now, and these newly minted ministers will have been paid, in effect, with post-dated cheques until this legislation is actually passed.

[Salaries Act, December 12th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for another speech getting directly to the point. I thank him specifically for pointing out that example of regional economic funding, which was aimed at northern Ontario but went to the minister of everything's riding in southern Ontario.

This is just another element or outcome of the government's decision to strip the regional development ministers across the country, which is proven by the more than $2 billion that was meant to go out the door in infrastructure spending that the government could not get out the door and has had to be profiled for later investment.

I know the speaking time is always limited, but I wonder if my colleague would like to amplify on some of those remarks that he made, criticizing the government for removing the regional ministers.

[Salaries Act, December 12th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for reminding Canadians of the many different ways the government has tried to defend the bill. I was thinking today, as I walked up to the House after the latest winter snowfall, of the different ways of looking at winter.

For example, Gilles Vigneault sang “Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver”, which translates to “my country is not a country, it's winter”. However, Robert Charlebois sang “L'hiver fret et blanc, fret et blanc comme un lavabo”, which translates to “winter is cold and white, cold and white like a sink”.

Those two very different visions of winter can be compared to the government, which first defended this bill as about gender equality, and then not about gender equality but something like Animal Farm, where all ministers are equal except some are more equal than others.

Could my colleague again address the flawed logic in the government's defence of this bill?

[Salaries Act, December 12th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I would like to compliment my colleague for his very thorough speech, particularly in detailing the many excuses the Liberal government has made to defend this terrible piece of legislation. Personally, I see it as a long, expensive, time and resource-consuming exercise to correct the Prime Minister's original goof when he created a cabinet and suddenly discovered that his junior ministers, his ministers of state, were women, and that they were paid somewhat less, as is the Westminster tradition for secondary jobs supporting major ministries.

My question has to do with another element of this legislation, which two years later finally formalizes another inexcusable mistake the Liberal government has made in eliminating the regional development ministers and replacing them all, and their expertise in the regions they represented, with a single minister who is familiar mostly with the development requirements of Mississauga in the greater Toronto area.

[Salaries Act, December 12th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I listened very carefully to my hon. colleague's remarks. I look to the day when a future government returns to the traditional position of minister of state, an honourable junior minister with appropriate compensation.

My question is prompted by my colleague's reference to the Prime Minister's authority to appoint and assign responsibilities.

With regard to the government House leader's assignment to lead the search for a new ethics commissioner, whom we will examine at committee today, and that she has been the prime defender of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance in the face of the investigations by the Ethics Commissioner, does she not think she might have recused herself from that responsibility assigned by the Prime Minister?

[Latin American Heritage Month Act, December 12th, 2017]

moved that Bill S-218, An Act respecting Latin American Heritage Month, be read a first time.

Mr. Speaker, I am truly honoured to table and sponsor Bill S-218, an act respecting Latin American heritage month. I am particularly honoured because the legislation, which recognizes the significant contributions to Canada's social, economic, and political fabric by our Latin American community, was created and lovingly fashioned by our late colleague, the hon. Senator Tobias Enverga.

Senator Enverga, a champion of multiculturalism, believed that diversity was Canada's greatest strength. It was Tobias's firm belief, before his untimely passing just last month, that Latin American heritage month would be a meaningful way to remember, celebrate, and educate fellow Canadians about a unique and important element of our country's significant diversity.

I urge all members on both sides of the House to support Bill S-218.

(Motion agreed to and bill read the first time)

[Ethics, December 11th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, delay is the deadliest form of denial. Canadians can clearly see, by the Liberals' unacceptable delay in appointing a new Ethics Commissioner and the PM's flippant disregard of the ethics laws and regulations fundamental to the House, that ethical practices are discretionary for Liberals.

Canadians deserve rulings on the ethical lapses of the Prime Minister and his finance minister. Will he commit to appointing a new Ethics Commissioner who will continue these important investigations?