Ralph Goodale

[Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, October 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, for the information of the House, could the Minister of Labour give us the assurance that in the bill the technical issues that so bedevilled Parliament in the spring session have in fact been addressed and that those issues are now all adequately covered?

[Ways and Means, October 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, could the government House leader confirm that this notice of ways and means motion in fact relates to what we knew in the previous sitting of Parliament as Bill C-62?

[Elections Canada, October 25th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this House needs to be in session to investigate the Conservatives' scam. Their silence in this House confirms what their local candidates have already admitted: this was a financing scam.

Here is the other part of it. When the Conservative Party submitted its national expenses to Elections Canada, it did not include any of that local phony advertising. That $1.2 million has to be added on to the total of its national expenses and that means the Conservatives blew right by the lawful limit.

Will the Minister of Justice get tough on this kind of crime?

[Elections Canada, October 25th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the Chief Electoral Officer has uncovered two parts to the in-and-out scam dogging the government.

First, the Conservatives pretended advertising was bought for and by local candidates when that was not true, but by claiming it was local and eligible for a cash rebate from the government, those candidates were lining up to grab more taxpayer money. Elections Canada says this advertising was “not an expense of the candidates who claimed it”.

That is very clear.

What is the Minister of Justice doing to enforce the Canada Elections Act?

[Canada Elections Act, October 24th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, by a mistake in the Canada Elections Act, the democratic right to vote has been stripped away from 190,000 rural residents in Saskatchewan. That is nearly 30% of the entire voters list for the province.

In the riding of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, where a byelection must be called by March, the problem is huge. More than 70% of eligible voters there cannot vote.

Band-Aid solutions are not sufficient. Will the Prime Minister guarantee that this will be fixed in law before any election is called?

[Petitions, October 22nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think this should take long.

In order for the House to make at least some progress on anti-crime legislation today in a responsible way, I wonder if you could see if there is unanimous consent in the House for the following motion, that Bill C-2, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, be deemed to have been read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

[Points of Order, October 19th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a small procedural matter out of question period.

Today the record will again show that during the course of question period the Secretary of State (Multiculturalism) read from an explicit piece of paper that purported to be a greeting card of some kind. He did not identify who that document was sent to or aimed toward. It is important for the House to know exactly what piece of paper he was quoting from. I would ask the Secretary of State (Multiculturalism) to table that greeting card for all members of Parliament to see.

[Privilege, October 18th, 2007]

--the unelected operative, one will get service but, if one does not deal with the appointee of the Conservative Party, somehow there will be a punishment. That is the problem in this case and it does appear on the surface to be a perversion of democracy.

This is not the only instance where the Conservative Party has tried this. There was a variation of it in the riding of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River in Saskatchewan.

Rather than easily setting this aside as some kind of a partisan dispute between disgruntled members of Parliament, Mr. Speaker, I think there is a valid point here for you to consider this along the line of whether or not when a political party appoints an individual in a riding to be the party's representative and indeed the government's representative in that riding and suggests to the constituents who live there that if they deal with the partisan employee they will get action but if they deal with the duly elected member of Parliament they will not or they might even be punished, there is something wrong with that situation. It is a subversion of democracy and it is an insult to all members of the House of Commons.

[Privilege, October 18th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, as members of Parliament, I am sure that we all from time to time receive complaints, founded or unfounded, about the helpfulness or unhelpfulness of other MPs in the House. That is a normal part of the political process.

However, I think the issue that is being raised here today is different from that. I would encourage you, Mr. Speaker, to take this issue seriously because it appears to be more than just a political complaint or grievance of one party against another or one MP against another. It seems what may have happened in this case is that people in a certain riding represented by the NDP member across the way were encouraged not to deal with their elected member of Parliament but rather to deal with a partisan Conservative Party appointee.

It is one thing to have a grievance about whether or not one is well served by another member of Parliament but it is quite a different thing when a political party in a riding that has a duly elected member of Parliament appoints a person to ostensibly represent the government and then delivers the message to the constituents of that riding that if he or she deals with the partisan appointee--

[Business of the House, October 18th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have two questions actually related to House business, one arising from the question period that we have just finished. During question period the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism quoted specifically from his BlackBerry.

There is a tradition of this House that material that is directly quoted from needs to be tabled in this House of Commons. I would ask the government House leader to ensure that the BlackBerry of the hon. Secretary of State for Multiculturalism be tabled forthwith.

Second, I wonder with respect to the work of the House whether the government House leader could indicate his plans for the rest of this week and all of next week, including Friday, which up to today remains an unspecified business day. What we will be doing all of this week, next week and Friday of next week specifically? And if he also could be kind enough to indicate to us what his general plan would be for the following week that would take us to the Remembrance Day break.