Scott Brison

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the government has been clear and the party has been clear. If any funds were received inappropriately, they will be returned to the Canadian taxpayers.

The question is this. Why has the Parti Québecois not been similarly forthright and committed to doing exactly the same thing?

Let us be clear. We are committed to ensuring that justice is meted out on anybody who performed any form of malfeasance against the Canadian taxpayer. We will get to the bottom of this issue.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the leader of the Bloc Québécois is talking about allegations, the same types of allegations that say that the Parti Québécois in Quebec similarly received funds inappropriately.

Anyone involved in this type of malfeasance, regardless of political stripe, will be subject to the full extent of Canadian law. Until we have the report, we can only deal with allegations. I would think now that there are fingers being pointed at the Parti Québécois that the hon. member would understand that principle.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, when the government launched action, when I launched action as a minister of the government to recover $41 million from 19 firms and individuals, the leader of the Conservative Party attacked us as a government for taking that action. Just because his leader is out of the country does not give him the licence to freelance.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear, when we as a government acted to recover some $41 million from 19 firms and agencies, the Conservative Party attacked those actions.

When we stood up for justice, and stand up for justice by supporting Justice Gomery, the Conservative Party attacks Justice Gomery and tries to kneecap him so that he does not submit a report.

We will continue to stand up for the taxpayer and we will continue to support justice. I do not care what the Conservative Party believes in these days, but I can tell the House that we believe in getting to the bottom of this issue and we also believe in supporting--

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, there is only one leader in this House who has actually done exactly that, who has taken responsibility, and that is the Prime Minister of Canada, our Prime Minister, who appointed Justice Gomery and who continues to support Justice Gomery.

We as a government support Justice Gomery because we want the truth. The NDP, the Bloc and the Alliance Conservatives are playing politics with this issue because they do not want the truth. Canadians deserve the truth. The Prime Minister stands with Canadians and with Justice Gomery because we look forward to his report.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, these are allegations, not facts. We need to wait for Justice Gomery's report to get the facts.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, one would think that with allegations that the Parti Québécois received funds inappropriately the Bloc would finally understand the importance of waiting for Justice Gomery to complete his work so that we could have all the facts instead of acting on individual testimony. Because these are allegations; these are not facts. Canadians and Quebeckers will not have the benefit of those facts until Justice Gomery completes all his work.

I can tell the member that both the government and the party will be responding very strongly to those recommendations from Justice Gomery.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the hon. member is discussing allegations. She will not wait for the facts. I do not know what she has against getting to the truth. We are not afraid of getting to the truth.

When we are talking about national unity, let us never forget that when federalists were up against the wall working hard to keep the country together in a pre-1995 environment in the province of Quebec just before the referendum, the leader of the Conservative Party gave a speech saying he did not care how many national capitals Canada ended up with. We have a separatist party that wants to tear the country apart and a Conservative Party that does not care.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, once again, we are getting to the bottom of this because we are not afraid of the truth and Canadians deserve the truth, but let us talk about unity for a moment, because--

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the government has been clear. If there were people who were participating in malfeasance, those guilty parties will be subject to the full extent of Canadian law and, as such, those people will be forced to repay funds. That is a position that has been very clear: that regardless of partisan stripe any malfeasance will be rooted out and dealt with very, very strongly.