Preston Manning

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 8th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, not only are there contradictions between what the Prime Minister told the House and the facts, but the Minister of Canadian Heritage cannot keep his story straight on this subject either.

The minister said most of the department contracts were doled out before his dinner for dollars. The fact is only two came before the dinner; the rest were awarded after the contractors coughed up $2,000 each. The minister also said his private dinner was a fundraiser for the Liberal Party of Canada when in fact the money went to pay off his campaign debts.

How does the heritage minister explain the contradiction between these facts and the things he has told the House?

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 8th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, first of all I thank the leaders of the Liberal-Bloc coalition for excluding question period from their deal to muzzle Parliament today. This is truly appreciated by members on this side of the House.

Yesterday the Prime Minister told the House that all the facts are known about the names and money contributed by guests at the heritage minister's last supper. Now we learn the amount of money raised will not be made public by Elections Canada until July. We learned the official tally could well exceed the $12,000 disclosed thus far and we learned that the identity of many of the guests and the exact number in attendance at the dinner remain a mystery.

How does the Deputy Prime Minister explain the contradiction between these facts and what the House was told yesterday?

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 7th, 1995]

The justice minister and the minister of public works are wrong over patronage. The Minister of Canadian Heritage is wrong over conflict of interest and the Prime Minister is wrong to defend those types of errors.

In the name of red book ethics, will the Prime Minister start today to do the right thing and demand the resignation of the minister?

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 7th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the red book of the Liberals makes reference to ethics being the discipline of discerning right from wrong. By his answers yesterday and today the Prime Minister displays a disappointing ability to tell right from wrong where patronage is involved and where influence-

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 7th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, in 1987 Conservative cabinet minister Roch LaSalle held a $5,000 a head cocktail party in a private home for a group of business people with interests in his department.

The Liberal opposition declared this to be a conflict of interest and demanded the minister's resignation. Prime Minister Mulroney, that great guardian of public ethics, eventually asked LaSalle to resign.

In 1994 the Liberal heritage minister held a $2,000 a plate dinner at a private home for a group of business people with interests in his department. We demand his resignation and declare it to be a conflict of interest, but the Prime Minister denies there is any wrongdoing.

Will the Prime Minister now abandon this double standard and raise himself to the ethical standards of Brian Mulroney and demand the resignation of that minister?

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 7th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, section 23 of the federal conflict of interest code includes this guideline:

A public office holder shall take care to avoid-the appearance of being placed under any obligation to any person-that might profit from special consideration on the part of the office holder.

In September the heritage minister blatantly broke the guideline. He did not avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. He participated in a private dinner at which guests were invited to pay $2,000 for access to the minister and after which several received government contracts.

The Prime Minister was therefore clearly wrong when he said in the House yesterday that "the minister has contravened none of our rules or directives".

Will the Prime Minister, before he digs himself in any deeper, now demand the resignation of the Canadian heritage minister for violation of this guideline?

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the actions of the minister of heritage are part of a disturbing pattern. The justice minister places the principle of merit on the shelf to hire the minister of revenue's friends in Victoria. The minister of public works has diverted over $26 million of highway funding to feather his political nest in Cape Breton.

Despite the government's promise to restore integrity to government, its actions prove it is no different than the Tories it replaced.

Will the Prime Minister live up to his red book promises on integrity and ask for the resignation of the Minister of Canadian Heritage?

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, we are not talking about secrecy but conflict of interest. This is just the latest in a long series of ministerial missteps. This minister has intervened with the CRTC on behalf of a constituent. He helped re-jig the government's satellite to home policy to benefit the Liberal connected Power Corp. He lunched with Edgar Bronfman Jr. on the eve of Seagram's takeover of MCA.

This minister has violated the spirit and the letter of the conflict of interest code on a number of occasions and has put the integrity of the government in question.

Therefore I ask the Minister of Canadian Heritage, will he now do what he should have done months ago and resign?

[Minister Of Canadian Heritage, June 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Heritage has done it again. Last year he attended a select $2,000 a plate fundraising dinner in his honour to help pay off 1993 campaign debts.

The dinner was held at the Montreal home of Richard Gervais, a Liberal bagman who has received at least $110,000 in contracts from the minister's office since the gathering. It was attended by individuals who have direct business dealings or regulatory dealings with the heritage department. It is not the dinner that concerns us but the conflict of interest which it represents.

My question is for the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Does he recognize that by putting himself in such a conflict of interest situation he undermines the integrity of his department and the government?

[Aboriginal Affairs, June 1st, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, if there is anything that has soured relations between aboriginal peoples and governments it has been inflated expectations and broken promises.

The current minister appears to be going down the same road as his predecessors. The Liberal red book promises on land claims and self-government raise aboriginal expectations sky high, and then the government simply cannot deliver.

Would the minister not agree it would be better to make one or two simple commitments to aboriginals that he could keep rather than make inflated promises to 600 aboriginal bands that he is simply unable to keep at the end of the day?