House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2019, with 34% of the vote.
Government Contracts April 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, one very important fact seems to escape the hon. gentleman. The fact is that the contractual relationship between Earnscliffe and the Department of Finance began in September of 1993, before the minister of finance was the minister of finance.
Government Contracts April 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, again the hon. gentleman is simply not dealing with the facts. The evidence that is before the public accounts committee would indeed indicate that the competition was open and overseen by the Department of Public Works, not the Department of Finance.
Government Contracts April 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, the record in fact does not show what the hon. member alleges.
The various memos have been referred to in the House. Those memos indicate, first of all, that the minister's office argued for more competition, not less, and that those same members of the minister's staff argued for more competition sooner, not later.
Government Contracts April 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, everything that is on the record with respect to that particular issue would indicate that the former minister of finance and his office constantly argued for more competition, not less.
Government Spending April 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, included in the list that the opposition is referring to is for example $20 million being provided by the Government of Canada over the next six or seven years to support the operation of the largest science project ever undertaken in this country at the synchrotron facility in Saskatoon.
The accusations of the opposition also include such things as $1 billion for Canadian farmers to help them deal with BSE.
Government Spending April 19th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I would refer the hon. gentleman to today's edition of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix which deals with this issue in its editorial and condemns the opposition for its ridiculous accusations.
Health April 1st, 2004
Mr. Speaker, there are $37 billion for health care, and more yet to come.
Speaking of misleading advertising, let us talk about Jack Layton on budget day when he misstated the debt figure by 700%. The NDP debt scenario would only come true if there were no growth in Canada for 10 years, and that would only happen if there were an NDP government.
The Budget April 1st, 2004
Mr. Speaker, in fact the federal surplus at the end of the last fiscal year, 2003-04, was $1.9 billion, which is exactly a margin of error of 1%.
The Budget April 1st, 2004
Mr. Speaker, for a variety of measures, the budget transferred $2.5 billion to the provinces. In addition to that, I am pleased to note specifically with respect to Quebec that its budgetary documents acknowledged federal assistance and flexibility in managing a number of its equalization issues, and that at the bottom line, Quebec has been able to increase its spending, cut its taxes and declare 2003-04 in balance.
Post-Secondary Education April 1st, 2004
Mr. Speaker, students have different views with respect to the Canada student loans program. The vast majority of students that were consulted during the prebudget consultations recommended exactly that the weekly loan limits ought to be increased, that computers ought to be factored into the calculation, that we should reduce the dependence on parental income and that we should improve the debt relief measures at the end of a student loan.
We have done all four of those things. We have also created the learning bond so low income families can plan and prepare. We have created a new grant of $3,000 for low income students, plus $2,000--