Government Contracts  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance took responsibility for the mistake. And it is clear that the money was used for its intended purpose. The Minister of Finance has given his word that he will not make that mistake again.

Public Works and Government Services  Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. Mr. Soudas and Mr. Housakos have never discussed government files in my home or my office. That is the truth, and that is all I have to say about it.

Afghanistan  Once again the leader of the NDP is now suggesting that we adopt the policy of the Bush government, which involves transferring detainees to Guantanamo Bay. To be clear, that is not the policy of this government.

Afghanistan  Mr. Speaker, I think the government has been extremely clear on this point. Three of the four parties of this House have agreed with this military mission to February 2009. The government has been clear. If there is to be any military activity after that date, that would have to be approved by Parliament.

The Environment  This government wants a mandatory international target and targets for all the major international emitters. That is the clear position of this government.

The Environment  Our position is to lower greenhouse gas emissions, not to raise them. We have been absolutely clear. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally, we must have mandatory emissions targets for all major emitters. That is the position of the Government of Canada. Shamefully, it is not the position of the Liberal Party.

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. Our position is there needs to be mandatory targets for all major emitters. That is the only way we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally. We need an effective international protocol.

Afghanistan  Speaker, I just said that there was no evidence to support such allegations. The government has been clear on that. Canadian soldiers and Canadian officials are very conscious of our responsibilities under international law. The Leader of the Opposition made a contrary accusation, fabricated an allegation and, if he is not prepared to apologize, his deputy leader should apologize for him.

Afghanistan  Mr. Speaker, the facts are clear, and they are completely different from the Bloc leader's information. The reality is that we have an arrangement with the Afghan government on monitoring and visiting detainees captured by Canada.

Airbus  Mr. Speaker, clearly, improvisation is the specialty of the leader of the NDP. It is clear that this government can answer questions much faster than the NDP leader can ask them.

Airbus  Speaker, last week I announced that as a result of a sworn affidavit that has been filed in court the government would appoint an independent third party to advise the government on how to proceed with such allegations. Let me make clear what we will be doing. We will be asking that independent third party, whom we will be naming very shortly, to provide us with the terms of reference for a full public inquiry as well as any other course of action that the independent party deems appropriate.

Airbus  Let me just speak to this issue of the letters, which the Leader of the Opposition alleges I have. Let us be very clear. I remind the Liberal leader that Karlheinz Schreiber has been the subject of extradition proceedings by the federal government for the past eight years. I can assure the Leader of the Opposition that when somebody writes about his extradition proceedings, that is not handled by the Prime Minister.

The Environment  Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is obviously a little bit ahead of himself in condemning a plan to failure before we even have actually tabled and put the regulations into place. The government is in the midst of consultation. The government's targets are clear. This government has been clear that, unlike the previous government, it is not going to rely on voluntary targets. These will be mandatory targets and we will reach them.

Public Works and Government Services  It is important, as the Auditor General has said, that when there is shared responsibility for contracting between public works and other departments that the lines of that responsibility be clear and distinguished between each so we can in fact hold the government accountable. That is precisely what we are doing.

Public Works and Government Services  Speaker, on the contrary, as I was saying, these changes meet the needs and requests of the Auditor General and the studies conducted by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. What we are doing is making absolutely clear that the public works department is responsible for the integrity of the process of contracting. At the same time, individual departments are responsible for their needs and for the specs.