Scott Andrews

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, March 18th, 2013]

With regard to federal grants and contributions, what were the amounts paid out in the riding of Avalon between April 1, 2011, and December 10, 2012, broken down by the (i) identity and address of each recipient, (ii) start date for the funding, (iii) end date for the funding, (iv) amount allocated, (v) name of the program under which the funding was allocated?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, March 18th, 2013]

With regard to Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade officials who work in the department and who met with Mr. Loyola Sullivan of Ocean Choice International between June 1, 2011, and May 10, 2012: (a) what are the names of the officials, broken down by (i) deputy ministers, (ii) associate deputy ministers, (iii) senior assistant deputy ministers, (iv) assistant deputy ministers, (v) directors, (vi) managers; (b) what is the functioning title of the officials in (a); and (c) what were the (i) date of the meetings, (ii) location of the meetings, (iii) topics discussed, (iv) details of any briefing notes or materials prepared or used for the meetings?

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 18th, 2013]

With regard to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Canadian embassy in Ireland: (a) what guests visited the embassy and met with the Ambassador, between December 1, 2010, and December 1, 2012, including the (i) home address of each visitor, (ii) date of the visit, (iii) purpose of the visit; and (b) what entertainment or hospitality expenses were incurred for each visit?

[Ethics, March 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I remind the member that the Conservative Party is the only party in Canadian history that had to plead guilty to breaking election laws. Now we learn that Elections Canada has recommended charges against more Conservatives for election fraud in the 2011 election. Unethical conduct is becoming an everyday occurrence for these Conservative members.

Peter Penashue cheats, gets caught and has to resign his seat. The member for Peterborough breaks the same laws, yet he remains Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister. Why will the Prime Minister not fire his parliamentary—

[Ethics, March 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the jig is up for former minister Penashue. Prohibited corporate donations, fraudulent invoicing and illegal loans were all used to buy an election. Instead of condemning these illegal practices, the Prime Minister has used taxpayer dollars to repay this dirty money, and to add insult to injury, the Prime Minister is threatening the people of Labrador by saying that they should re-elect Peter, or else.

What kind of Prime Minister threatens a voter?

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 8th, 2013]

With regard to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and officials who worked in the Minister's office between May 8, 2010, and December 1, 2012, for all meetings concerning any aspect of the Muskrat Falls project, (i) what are the names and titles or positions of all officials who held or attended each meeting, (ii) who were the other attendees at each meeting, (iii) what were the dates of each meeting, (iv) what were the locations of each meeting, (v) what were the topics discussed at each meeting?

[Ethics, February 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs about his ministerial budget and his staff.

Media reports confirm that the minister gave Chris Crawford a huge promotion, effectively doubling his salary. This is the same Chris Crawford who ran the CIMS database on election day, the very data that was used to defraud voters.

Will the minister confirm that it was his decision to give Mr. Crawford this promotion, or was it someone else in government or the Conservative Party who instructed him to do so? Does he take full responsibility for his employees?

[CBC and Public Service Disclosure and Transparency Act, February 12th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to the bill today, calling for more accountability and transparency at the CBC. We will try to keep it to the facts and try to look at the bill on the surface of what it is trying to accomplish.

I do not see it as the bogeyman the NDP points it out to be, but we have to make sure there are protections in there for the CBC, and I will get to that in a moment.

First, we should give credit where credit is due. I give credit to the CBC on the information it has provided. The Information Commissioner has recently given it an A for performance, an upgrade from an F.

Granted, that is on the timing of requests, because quite often we see the government dragging its heels on a lot of information requests. Canada Post Corporation is another example, and the Department of National Defence. The government needs to do better on getting the information out there.

The bill is a result of the legal battle around section 68.1. We did study it at our committee, and changes are needed to bring a little more clarity to section 68.1 so that we do not run into this in the future.

Granted, there may be changes made to section 68.1. That does not preclude it from being challenged in a court of law and information being challenged in the courts, but we have to make sure that some fundamental principles behind that remain.

That is the role of the Information Commissioner. We must ensure that the Information Commissioner has the power to investigate this. Both parties must submit the information before her. We have to make sure she has the power she needs to look at the information and decide on what can be released. I would like to ask the Information Commissioner, when she comes before committee with the bill, about the prejudice test and how exactly that prejudice test would work and what could be some of the pitfalls around that.

We support CBC. We like the programming and the journalistic investigations it does, but we have to make sure as well that it is protected. The journalism, programming and creative activities must be protected for all.

More important, journalistic sources have to be protected. That was referred to a little earlier in the debate. We have to ensure that these sources are protected, because it is fundamental, when it comes to journalism, that these sources be protected.

The second part of the bill, which is an interesting part, is about the salary ranges and salaries in government departments.

If the CBC wanted to protect the salary of a personality or someone in the department, it would have to go to the Information Commissioner and try to have that information protected, because it bases on its programming integrity, its commercial value. With regard to looking at the salaries at the CBC, the Information Commissioner would rule in favour of the CBC and protect those salaries from disclosure for commercial value. We have to make sure that is looked at when we look at the bill at committee.

The other part of the bill is releasing salaries of all people higher than DM1, which is very interesting, because the government, and in particular the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council Office, has not been forthcoming with salaries of people in the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council Office. The bill does open up those offices, as well, for disclosure of the salary of anybody earning more than a deputy minister's salary.

A deputy minister's salary, just so the public out there would know, is probably somewhere in the range of $160,000 to $180,000, so these are fairly highly paid public servants. It is important that these public servants' salaries be made public. That is one thing the bill would do.

As I said earlier, the government has fallen behind in disclosing such information, and we must hold it to account so it does a better job of it. Once we shine light and open up public disclosure in an access to information request, it does keep things honest.

One thing that I have learned in politics is that as much as there might be secrets, it is hard to keep a secret. We have to ensure this information is available. If an individual requests it, we have to ensure he or she can get access to this information. The government must strive to do a better job of providing that information and to be more open and accountable. It helps the opposition and everyone to hold people to account.

I look forward to this bill going to committee, where more questions can be asked to get clarification and to ensure that the CBC is protected in certain circumstances and to open up transparency in other circumstances.

[Ethics, February 8th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the minister from Labrador is still under a cloud of serious election violations but he is doing nothing to help himself. Instead of coming clean and opening his books, he is helping to cover up more Conservative election fraud. He has given a high-paying job to Chris Crawford, the former CIMS database manager.

If the minister from Labrador still knows how to speak, could he get up and explain why he hired Mr. Crawford in his office in the first place, and what Mr. Crawford knows about Pierre Poutine's attack on voters?

[School Principal Award, February 8th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's Outstanding Principal Award is a special recognition through the Learning Program to acknowledge the achievements of 51 school principals in Canada. The Learning Program is a charitable organization dedicated to a strong public education system.

I am so pleased that two of the 51 principals receiving this prestigious recognition in 2013 are from the riding of Avalon. Joy Brown, principal of Coley's Point Primary School in Bay Roberts, and Robin McGrath, principal of Holy Cross Elementary School in Holyrood, will be honoured during a gala event in Toronto later this month. These two individuals were selected from a large number of nominations by a committee of distinguished education, community and private sector leaders.

For every successful school, there is a successful principal who strives for excellence in education. They engage their communities, mentor their staff and create a safe and nurturing learning environment for their students.

I join the students, teachers, staff and parents of Coley's Point Primary and Holy Cross Elementary schools to congratulate Joy Brown and Robin McGrath for being recognized as two of Canada's outstanding principals. They have made their teaching colleagues, schools, communities and province very proud. Keep up the good work.