Aboriginal Affairs  The minister continues to hear the outcry of aboriginal people living on reserve. Grassroots aboriginal people have been begging the minister to stop the gross corruption and waste on reserve. Others in Canada can access an ombudsman. Aboriginal people on reserve cannot. Will the minister respond to this request? Will the minister give aboriginal people on reserve the same rights and privileges that the rest of us have, and give them access to an ombudsman?

First Nations Accountability Coalition  The grievances were many and were extensively documented. Many had proof of mismanagement of tax dollars, illegal and corrupt activities and electoral irregularities, just to name a few. I encourage all members, regardless of political stripe, to obtain and study a copy of this report. In the words of Leona “unless the grassroots natives' concerns are addressed and thoroughly investigated, a new relationship with band members cannot exist and self-government will not succeed ”.

Supply  We can therefore see that some departments take the auditor general's recommendations into consideration and institute specific corrective action. But there are two departments which have long been corrupt and in which a miracle will be needed to put things right and they are Human Resources Development Canada and National Defence. These will be two of the last departments that I hope and believe the auditor general will examine before he concludes his excellent work, because he is leaving us in one or two years to take up very important duties within an international organization.

Canada Post Corporation Act  Many have told stories of finding it more and more difficult to do their routes and make any profit whatsoever. The tendering process has been so corrupt, flawed and loaded against the employees that they found it impossible to raise their bidding price with the cost of living. As such all their costs and expenses are going up as all our costs and expenses are going up.

Human Resources Development  Furthermore, the auditor general tells us that only a police investigation will reveal any political interference. Finally, the papers are talking about corruption in connection with what has been going on at Department of Human Resources Development. With a situation of such disastrous proportions, is it not time the Prime Minister understood that he must call a police investigation, ask the police to act as quickly as possible to bring this situation fully to light?

Supply  The U.S. said it would not have anything to do with this program. The World Bank said it would not have anything to do with it. It is rife with corruption. It is an environmental disaster currently and waiting to happen. It is going to displace 1.3 million people. Yet what does the Canadian government government do? It takes millions of dollars of the Canadian taxpayers' money and loans it to China, which is building a superheated military complex as we speak.

Supply  Regrettably it feeds into some of the most cherished notions of Canadians who do not take the time to inform themselves with respect to debate in the House, namely that government is wasteful by definition, that government is intrusive into the lives of Canadians, that government is therefore corrupt. HRDC is a very big department. It spends something in the order of $60 billion of taxpayers' money on an annual basis. It administers the pension program but I assume that members of the opposition are against pension programs.

Export Development Corporation  What happened? The EDC stepped in and funded the Three Gorges Dam, despite serious environmental, corruption and economic charges. Why is the government using taxpayers' money to support a dam that is an environmental disaster?

Supply  The program must be reviewed, but it is definitely not with a six point plan from the minister that patronage, corruption and major violations of ethics, justice, honesty and integrity will be eliminated. As long as the minister will not have the courage to face these problems, she will not be able to recognize them, let alone deal with them.

Supply  The scandal surrounds the attempts by members opposite to try to portray the programs run by Human Resources Development Canada as being somehow corrupt. If members opposite want to chirp about this issue they should go to their HRDC offices. We know that many of them have not taken the time to do this. They should go to their HRDC offices and meet with the men and women who deliver these programs.

Supply  I heard the word hypocrisy used. I heard the words lack of honour used. Coming from the most corrupt government in the history of Canada—

Supply  There is no question—and this is where we would agree with the Reform Party—that we absolutely need to have an independent public inquiry to immediately get to the bottom of the Liberal slush funds, the corporate bailouts and the corruption that has taken place. We need to fix these programs so they can end up benefiting Canadians who need them. However, Reform's call to divert federal spending increases fails to address the problem and fails to hold the Liberals accountable for perpetuating those problems we are trying to deal with.

Human Resources Development  In such a case the appropriate remedy is to correct the mistake, and that is what we have done. If the hon. member thinks that the employee was acting in bad faith, that it was corrupt, that somehow there was fraud involved, then let him bring forward that information.

Supply  Members will allow me then to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the glorious revolution of 1968 that brought Pierre Trudeau to power by citing one of his best aphorisms. He was referring to Lord Acton that power corrupts. He then said “but absence of power corrupts absolutely”. He was using this as a way of distinguishing the different roles of government and opposition MPs. It is the duty of the opposition to attack a government.

The Budget  The interesting thing is, instead of acknowledging right away that this was a scandal and saying “We are going to bring an end to these grants and subsidies”, because of, frankly, the political corruption that follows, they said “We are going to implement a six-point plan and we will do better”. What has happened over the last little while is that the more we have dug the worse it gets.