Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a petition containing 125 signatures. These Quebeckers are calling on the Government of Canada to demonstrate that it respects the Quebec nation and Bill 101.
House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2011, with 15% of the vote.
Petitions June 4th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a petition containing 125 signatures. These Quebeckers are calling on the Government of Canada to demonstrate that it respects the Quebec nation and Bill 101.
30-Hour Cycling Challenge June 4th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate 23 students from École polyvalente Nicolas-Gatineau, in my riding. On June 5 and 6, 13 girls and 10 boys will be cycling as part of the 18th edition of the 30-hour cycling challenge for the school's senior students.
This is a huge personal challenge. These young cyclists have worked very hard to get in shape, and they have logged hundreds of kilometres on their bikes to prepare for this activity. I would like to congratulate and thank the organizer, François Allard. This is his last time around the track; he will be retiring from teaching at the end of this school year.
The Bloc Québécois and I want to congratulate all of these young athletes and wish them a great ride.
Financial Administration Act May 30th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois supports the principle of Bill S-201, requiring quarterly financial reports.
The confidence of Quebec taxpayers in the federal public administration has been severely eroded in recent years after the abuse of public funds by the Liberals and Conservatives.
The requirements of a firm financial disclosure policy for federal public administration and Crown corporations and frequent disclosure to Parliament would no doubt lead to more transparency. The discipline of more frequent financial reporting would give early warning of problems to avoid the complications and difficulties associated with big government, and to ensure that the government has credibility with the public.
Departments need to be encouraged to adopt accrual accounting, where this has not yet been done, and, in the same vein, to take the necessary time to do so without delaying the introduction of greater transparency. Some federal government departments and agencies have not yet adopted accrual accounting. The idea is to take what is already underway and create accountability. If we go about this with intelligence and commitment, accrual accounting will eventually be in place for the whole of government.
The Bloc Québécois notes that some organizations, such as Export Development Canada, already prepare quarterly financial reports. These reports are not public per se when they are tabled here, but it is certainly easy to produce them and make them available to the public. On the downside, however, the Bloc Québécois is concerned that producing quarterly financial reports could paralyze the federal public service and increase bureaucracy. The government will have to proceed carefully to ensure that departments and agencies do not get bogged down in details and create additional layers of bureaucracy.
Consider what John Wiersema, deputy auditor general with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, told the Senate committee when the bill threatened to bog down the machinery of government. We have to take his words seriously. He said, “—we are concerned about the government's capacity to implement all of these initiatives. ... it will remain difficult for departments to produce reliable quarterly financial reports in the time frames required by this bill.”
We must therefore take a very close look at this aspect and ensure that the mechanism to achieve greater transparency can work seamlessly with the machinery of government and not make procedures more complicated.
Perhaps we should also limit the scope of the bill to exclude small organizations and departments and non-commercial institutions. Once again, we must act consistently to ensure that the government is working to meet the needs of the people and is not getting bogged down in red tape and paperwork. We have to ensure that, according to the principle we agree with, the process will be as simple and coherent as possible. The machine has to be well-oiled to meet the need for transparency.
The Bloc Québécois believes that until the government introduces accrual budgeting and appropriations for departments, and until the government is able to produce annual departmental financial statements that are auditable, it will be difficult to implement Bill S-201 as it now stands. There is still work to be done and it must be done in a spirit of transparency, which is something we cannot oppose.
You know as well as I do, Mr. Speaker—you follow politics, as do members of the public—that the Conservatives, like the Liberals, have shattered the confidence of taxpayers. This was said earlier. Quebec taxpayers' confidence in the federal public administration has been shattered by the fact that the Liberals and Conservatives misused public funds.
Under the Liberals, there were numerous scandals involving misappropriation of public funds. There was the sponsorship scandal, the $250 Christmas ornaments, all the attempts to convince Quebeckers to forget their own identity; the Department of Human Resources' transitional jobs fund; the administrative problems of the gun registry, and on and on.
The Conservatives are not much better. The Minister of Public Works seems to be unable to stop the eccentricities of his cabinet colleagues. More than $17 billion in military spending occurred without any real call for tenders. That is what is going on right now and it is unacceptable.
Without a call for tenders, a security fence was installed that cost the taxpayers almost four times more than it was worth—remember Montebello?
The Conservatives conduct two polls every business day. They, who spoke out against this practice, are the champions of it. In fact, as far as polls are concerned, the Conservatives have managed to spend even more than the Liberals.
More and more contracts are being awarded to friends. The Minister of Finance acknowledged awarding a $122,000 contract without a call for tenders to Hugh MacPhie, a former Mike Harris aide.
Andre Harvie, a former Progressive Conservative minister under the Brian Mulroney government, a chemical engineer by training, received a non-competitive contract amounting to $500,000 to act as the lead federal negotiator on the assignment of rights on certain public land in the Northwest Territories.
You are well aware, Mr. Speaker, since this happens in your party, that they make partisan appointments. The Prime Minister has made dozens of partisan appointments at all levels of the machinery of government. Yet he criticized the Liberal government for doing that. It seems the blue Conservative banner and the red Liberal banner are interchangeable.
The following are a few examples. Elwin Hermanson, a former Reform member and former employer of the current Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, was appointed by the latter to head up the Canadian Grain Commission.
Leo Housakos, a fundraiser for the Conservative party was appointed—you know where, Mr. Speaker—to the VIA Rail board of directors.
William Elliott, former special adviser to the Prime Minister and Don Mazankowski's chief of staff—from 1990 to 1992—was appointed Commissioner of the RCMP.
Gwyn Morgan, a Conservative fundraiser, was nominated as the chair of the new public appointments commission.
Howard Bruce, former Conservative candidate for Portneuf, was appointed to the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada. And there are others. Whether the Liberals or the Conservatives are in power, the recipe for cronyism is the same.
And that is the complete opposite of transparency. The Liberals got themselves into an appalling situation. They will be punished for a long time. I do not even know if they will elect any members in the next election—even in Quebec—because their role in the sponsorship scandal damaged their reputation.
Financial Administration Act May 30th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, could the member for Peace River tell me how his government would implement such a bill if it were passed?
Library and Archives Canada May 30th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, on May 20, there was yet another leak in the Library and Archives Canada building on Wellington Street in Ottawa that put precious documents at risk. This incident is another reminder of the need to build phase II of the Gatineau Preservation Centre in order to properly protect all the archived documents. The blueprints for phase II have been available since 1997.
Will the Minister of Canadian Heritage finally show some leadership and authorize the construction of phase II in Gatineau?
Business of Supply May 29th, 2008
Mr. Chair, if we ask the question, it is because we have no guarantees and parliamentarians are not invited to these very important discussions. Perhaps if the government opened its doors, was far-sighted and demonstrated greater transparency in this matter, we would not ask the question so many times.
I would like the Minister of Foreign Affairs to tell us when we will learn about the current government's first policy on Canada's geopolitical position on foreign affairs, which also touches on—
Business of Supply May 29th, 2008
Mr. Chair, with respect to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, we know there was an important meeting last summer, not so long ago, in Montebello with the U.S. president and the Mexican president. We as parliamentarians and citizens have a very hard time with the fact that this type of meeting, which deals with aspects of everyone's lives, is held behind closed doors.
What is the current government doing to ensure that drinking water is not considered a commodity in the North American Free Trade Agreement? Will drinking water continue to be excluded from being considered merchandise, to protect this extremely important resource that Quebec and Canada have in abundance but that should not be wasted and slip through the hands of the highest bidder?
Business of Supply May 29th, 2008
Mr. Chair, on another note, but still on the topic of international matters, I would like to know how Canada sees its involvement in la Francophonie with regard to the development of the French fact or at least the enhancement of the French fact around the globe, throughout all the cultures that speak our language.
I would also like to know how Canada is setting an example on francophone matters when it comes to promoting, and at the same time, ensuring spinoffs right here, to combat this very difficult scourge facing our communities. The further one gets from Quebec, the more one is faced with ethnolinguistic assimilation, that is, the anglicization of francophones. We have also seen a bit of this same phenomenon in Quebec.
I would like to know what is being done internationally and, as a result, get an idea of the validity of Canada's approach, if it has one, to combating the scourge of linguistic assimilation.
Business of Supply May 29th, 2008
Mr. Chair, on another subject, we—I mean in my former life as a teacher—met with Quebec, Canadian and even German aid workers to discuss the terrible Rwandan genocide tragedy. One aspect of the tragedy that we found most moving and that really touched young people and high school students—not to mention that touched most of us, as parents—was the issue of child soldiers.
Here in Canada, we have a child soldier, or at least, we have someone who was a child soldier when conflict broke out in Afghanistan, and who was taken prisoner. His name is Omar Khadr.
I know that people have already asked questions about this, but there are some answers I would like to hear. What has the current government done to help countries with child soldiers rehabilitate them and help them escape the clutches of those who kill?
Also, what will it do about our citizen, who is still a prisoner of war and who was a child soldier when he was taken prisoner?
What is our position on child soldiers, and what kind of example will we set in Mr. Khadr's case?
Business of Supply May 29th, 2008
Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my colleague. Still on the subject of landmines, we know that the United States and China are still producing these inhumane weapons. In so doing, they are working against agreements that Canada has signed to get rid of these weapons for good.
What is Canada's position on that? How does it plan to influence producers as massive as the United States and the People's Republic of China, which are still producing mines and are not helping solve the problem? They are doing anything but offering solutions. I would like to know more about the government's diplomatic tactics in this regard.