Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this important historic debate which in no short time at all will result in Canada embarking on an important election.
The motion before the House has been clearly defined. It speaks to the need to remove the government from office for reasons that have been outlined and will be chronicled throughout the day.
Earlier this week a majority of the House of Commons voted in favour of the New Democratic Party's motion which called for an election in early February. The Liberal Party uncategorically rejected it. It is clear that the government refused to compromise, refused a non-confidence motion that at that time would have caused an election to occur after Christmas.
It is also important to note that the original timetable that was set out by the Prime Minister which would have had the second report for Gomery arrive on December 1 would have put the country in the exact same position that we are currently facing.
The government has refused once again, as it has on so many occasions, to accept the democratic will of the House. Therefore, the official opposition has now moved a motion that condemns the arrogance of the government by refusing the will of the House as it has before. It condemns the Liberal government for the culture of entitlement, corruption, scandal, gross abuse of public funds for political purposes, and massive misrepresentation.
So much of this was at one time a priority for the Prime Minister. He spoke of the democratic deficit. He spoke of the need to end the culture of who you know in the PMO. It has now become clear that he in fact has embraced another culture and that is, “How much money can we blow in the PMO? How much can we access for the sole purposes of buying public support?”
As the words fall from the Prime Minister's mouth, he knows they are untrue when he makes these types of promises. We have seen that from the very beginning when the Prime Minister came to public office with the avowed purpose of defeating free trade, with the avowed promise to axe the tax to get rid of the GST. Then in true form in Janus-faced enthusiasm, he embraced both of those policies, calling them his own and taking credit for them throughout the country. That is not the type of honesty one would expect from the high office of Prime Minister.
To preface my remarks I want to refer of course to Justice Gomery's report, which in very telling words stated:
The Report that follows chronicles a depressing story of multiple failures to plan a government program appropriately and to control waste--a story of greed, venality and misconduct both in government and advertising and communications agencies, all of which contributed to the loss and misuse of huge amounts of money at the expense of Canadian taxpayers. They are outraged and have valid reason for their anger.
These are watchwords for the campaign and will be engraved on the tombstone of the Liberal Party at the conclusion of the campaign.
The Liberal Party now sets these priorities of addressing gun violence, priorities of addressing some of the terrible things that have happened in our country's history, whether it be abuses in residential schools, whether it be historic injustices of those who have suffered at the hands of previous governments, Japanese immigrants, Ukrainians, native people. Yet all of this is happening cynically on the eve of an election rather than accepting the fact that the government has now had over 12 years to address some of these serious concerns on behalf of Canadians. This speaks again to the priorities.
The priorities of the government are now clear. The government devotes all of its energies and its unfettered access to the public purse to perpetuate itself in power by any means possible. This is a government of failures. This is a government that subordinates the interests of the country to the interests of the Liberal Party each and every time that the Liberals approach an election.
This type of governance has to end. We have seen so many examples, such as the gun registry, which is a ghastly and grievous waste of government money, public money, $2 billion for this program, while we have seen violence increase on the streets of this country. To perpetuate this type of bureaucratic monstrosity is again what I would describe as a simultaneous, face-saving, rear-end covering exercise on the part of the government.
The Liberals once again subvert the interests of Canadians to somehow avoid accountability and responsibility for their misguided policies. They consistently put blind partisanship ahead of people's interests.
Mr. Speaker, I should have noted at the outset that I will be splitting my time with my friend the hon. member for Prince George—Peace River, who has graciously allowed me to precede him in this exercise.
It was an abuse of the trust of taxpayers everywhere. This program has been highlighted as the worst political scandal in modern history. Justice Gomery has confirmed that millions of dollars, millions, were stolen from the public treasury to the benefit of the Liberal Party.
The Liberals say that they will pay back a paltry $1.14 million. They have decided that is the amount they owe, overlooking all of the evidence, overlooking the compelling testimony of Liberals themselves under oath who suggested that the money far exceeds that amount. It is like the Minister of Justice himself getting up and suggesting that the Liberal Party has negotiated with the Liberal government that this is the amount they owe and by the way, they find themselves darned good-looking at the same time. It is ridiculous.
Justice Gomery confirmed the existence of a culture of entitlement. Those were his words. They rang very true again when we heard Mr. David Dingwall refer to entitlement to entitlements in justifying a severance package from his old friends and cronies in the PMO. We know this culture of entitlement runs deep in the Liberal Party.
The bureaucrats who were involved in the sponsorship program just a short time ago spoke of this when they testified before the public accounts committee here in the House of Commons. Ironically, that public accounts committee was cut off just before the last election. It was shut down as we were about to hear the testimony of a very key figure in the entire scandal, and that was Jean Brault. Once again there was interference at the highest levels to avoid accountability and responsibility.
For 12 years now the Liberals have been siphoning Canadians' tax dollars, wasting money on things like the gun registry, Challenger jets, the HRDC boondoggle and a myriad of other untenable programs that do not help ordinary Canadians.
The government has rewarded illegal and immoral behaviour. Let us just look at some of the examples of this culture of entitlement.
When the lid started to come off the sponsorship scandal, the government made the minister who was most responsible, most involved, the ambassador to Denmark. Talk about rewarding bad behaviour. What did the Danish ever do to deserve that?
André Ouellet, then the president of Canada Post, was allowed to charge Canadian taxpayers in excess of $2 million in travel and hospitality expenses without turning in a single receipt, and my colleague from Palliser is still trying to get to the bottom of that. Who can get away with that type of thing?
Then of course the infamous David Dingwall with a salary in excess of $277,000 billed ordinary Canadians for gum, a newspaper and water. Talk about a culture of entitlement.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs was allowed to bring his chauffeur along on a foreign affairs trip, even though he was not doing any driving over there as far as we know.
The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration billed the taxpayers for over $7,000 in restaurant meals during an 11 week period, including an incredible $130 pizza binge for two, charging it to the Canadian taxpayers.
Of course, I have mentioned Mr. Dingwall, but just weeks after Justice Gomery's scathing report was made public, the Liberal government issued an untendered contract to the Liberal campaign manager, David Herle, for advice on the government's mini budget. Mr. Herle's firm, Veraxis Research and Communications, was given over $23,000 for this contract without competition to essentially write the Liberal Party's election platform.
This type of approach to governance is an absolute disgrace that has to end. That is what this election will allow Canadians to do. It will allow Canadians to put an end to this type of governance. It is a sad day for Canada when we come to the conclusion that this is what we must do. A national party like the Liberal Party, a historic institution, has broken faith with the people of Canada and has abused the public trust that it was given.
We have a Prime Minister who has brought disgrace and, I would suggest, disrepute to his high office which he now occupies.
It is time to end the culture of corruption. It is time to end the gross misuse of the money of taxpayers and hard-working Canadians. That is what a Conservative Party will do under the leadership of the hon. member for Calgary Southwest. That is what a Conservative Party will do in realigning and recalibrating the priorities of government with those of Canadians.
My constituents in Central Nova and Nova Scotians in general want the same thing as all Canadians in all parts of the country. They want accountable responsible government. They want clear, honest representation, not the arrogance displayed by the government. They want programs that work. They want access to government aid when they need it and when they deserve it, not because they have joined or support any political party.
What is most appalling is that while kickback cash was being channelled through the sponsorship program to the Liberal Party, the Liberals were also simultaneously wasting and mismanaging programs across the country without giving priority to Canadians. This has to end.
Canadians now have an opportunity to flush the government from office and bring about a clean, honest, responsible government that will get on with bringing this country higher, putting priorities straight and getting on with reaching the potential that we know we have in this great nation.
