Ralph Goodale

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, again with respect to the action that I took last week, I want to make it clear that where my department as the contracting agent either on behalf of itself or on behalf of any other government department or agency new advertising business to the firm Groupaction will not be entertained.

We are examining business that is caught in process on a case by case basis and we are making it abundantly clear to all other government departments what our position is.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would of course for political reasons love to match the hon. gentleman's inflammatory rhetoric, but I am dealing with a serious problem in a serious way.

I have been asked by the Prime Minister to solve the issues in this portfolio. I intend to do so and I am not going to allow idle speculation to interfere with the process.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, again, I do not intend to speculate upon what the police may or may not be doing. From time to time issues arise that raise legal questions. The proper officials within the Government of Canada refer those matters to the RCMP. It is up to the RCMP to determine whether it will investigate or not and I will not impinge upon its work.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, again the hon. gentleman is inviting speculation. Quite frankly, if we engage in that game sooner or later we will be tripping over something that fouls up a police investigation and I will not do that. It is extremely important in this matter that we take it step by step and that we are meticulous and careful to ensure that the police are able to do their job.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I have thus far declined to get into the numbers game with respect to police references. If I am asked a direct question about a direct file, I will give a direct answer. However I will avoid speculation and being drawn into hypothetical supplementaries because if I allow myself to fall into that trap then sooner or later somebody will interfere with the police investigation and I do not want that to happen.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, in asking me to take on this responsibility, asked me to find out where the problems were and to correct them. His instructions were very clear. There are problems that need to be addressed. They must be addressed in a sound and solid way so that we can have transparency, accountability and full value for taxpayer dollars.

That is the mandate I have and that is the mandate on which I intend to deliver.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I made inquiries with my officials to examine this issue with respect to what appeared on the Internet. I am advised that aside from the severances of third party proprietary information, as required by the Access to Information Act and privacy legislation, there are no differences between the audit reports posted on the Internet and the final audit that was approved by my department.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I previously outlined the inquiries undertaken by my department, treasury board, the auditor general, the police, the public accounts committee and so on.

All dimensions of this matter are being very thoroughly investigated. I would say that it would be politically convenient on the floor of the House if I could respond to the hon. gentleman with a broadside political blunderbuss, but I would prefer to take this step by step, meticulously along the way to ensure that every step is sound and secure and we get to the ultimate destination, and that is cleaning up this problem.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, in respect of that type of business that would be contracted through the Department of Public Works and Government Services, which would be the largest portion of it, the action has already been taken.

My deputy minister and I are also drawing this matter to the attention of every other official in the Government of Canada who may have contracting responsibility apart from public works. We will ensure that they know full well the position of our department.

[Government Contracts, June 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the evidence shows that the internal audit was published on the Internet on October 11, 2000. The following day media reports appeared, including on page 3 of the

Globe and Mail.

ATIP requests were responded to. This was obviously not a secret endeavour. It was an endeavour where issues were found in a program that needed to be corrected and the government began the process of correction.