Ralph Goodale

[Government Contracts, October 4th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the firm's name appeared certainly on the standing offer that was available to the government. I am making further inquiries about the details as to the departmental applicability of that, but indeed there was a standing offer and this particular firm was a part of it.

[Government Contracts, October 4th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I have no personal knowledge of the e-mail. What I have done is to inquire of the officials of my department as to what transpired in this case. They indicate that there was a standing offer that was utilized and that standing offer was created in the first place by means of a competitive process.

[Government Contracts, October 4th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is my information that the contract in question was in fact awarded by the Department of Public Works and Government Services on behalf of the Department of Canadian Heritage. I am advised that the choice of Groupe Everest was made by officials in my department on the basis of the agency's standing offer with the department. That standing offer was established by a competitive process.

[Government Contracts, October 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, questions were asked earlier about the qualifications of this particular group and the standing offer list upon which they appeared by way of a competitive process. I have undertaken to get the details of that and I will report back to the House.

[Government Expenditures, October 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, indeed the records show that all of the rules were properly followed in this transaction to acquire the aircraft. The government needs to address those priorities like it does have to address all of the other priorities, including job creation, in Atlantic Canada and elsewhere.

I am very pleased that in the most recent financial information released by the Minister of Finance he indicated that Canada does in fact today enjoy the best job creation growth record in all of the G-8.

[Government Expenditures, October 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is perfectly appropriate for Canadians to scrutinize every government expenditure. That is why we have our very elaborate process for reporting on those expenditures, and it is important for government to be able to balance a whole range of priorities all at the same time. Investing in aircraft is one of those priorities, but so also are health care, where we invest $29 billion every year, children, $7 billion every year, innovation, $7.5 billion every year, and aboriginals, more than $6 billion. The government has very balanced priorities.

[Government Contracts, October 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is my information that the firm was indeed on a standing offer list and that the firm appeared on that list as a result of a fully competitive process according to the rules that are applied for contracting with the Government of Canada.

[Government Contracts, October 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the contract in this particular case was awarded according to the rules by my department, on behalf of the Department of Canadian Heritage, to deal with certain matters having to do with amateur sport.

I take it from the hon. gentleman's question that he is asking for some details with respect to the firm's expertise in relation to the project that was undertaken. I will make the appropriate enquiries and report back to him.

[Government Contracts, October 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I have said very clearly and the Prime Minister has said very clearly that all matters in this file would be thoroughly investigated. The administrative errors will be corrected. The overpayments will be recovered. Wherever there is wrongdoing, that will be prosecuted according to law.

[Government Contracts, October 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I indicated earlier in the spring that there were serious difficulties with the sponsorship program which needed to be corrected.

A whole series of corrective actions have indeed been launched. A departmental review by my officials examined 720 files over the course of the summer. A report will be forthcoming on all of that very shortly. The Auditor General will be doing a government wide audit of all sponsorship and advertising matters. The cases that have raised legal questions have always been referred to the police.

There is a whole series of activities that is underway to get to the bottom of all of this.