"Osama bin Laden's chief weapons of mass destruction broker is a former resident of a Vancouver suburb, a Federal Court judge disclosed yesterday in ruling on a related case"
Mr. Larry Miller (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, CPC): Mr. Speaker, although the Liberal Party of Canada has officially been named in a judicial inquiry into corruption, the culture of entitlement continues with untendered contracts to friends, exorbitant severance to insiders and the Liberal Party's stubborn refusal to pay back stolen ad scam dollars. They have continuously dropped the ball on the softwood lumber dispute and the Auditor General says they are not providing adequate training to RCMP officers.
Canadians know the time for change has come. They will soon have that choice between a clean, honest Conservative government and a tired, arrogant and scandal-ridden gang of Liberals.
The Prime Minister, the finance minister and the revenue minister were flying on an executive Airbus together. The Prime Minister said to the finance minister, “I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window and make someone very happy”. The finance minister responded by saying, “ I could throw 10 $100 bills out the window and make 10 people happy”. Then the revenue minister said, “I could throw 100 $10 bills out the window and make 100 people happy”.
I say let us throw the whole Liberal government out and make 30 million people happy.
Question Period
Finance +-
Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, CPC): Mr. Speaker, in its dying days, the Liberal government has resorted to trying to bribe Canadians with their own tax dollars on an unprecedented scale. According to media estimates, the Liberals have made over $20 billion in bogus pledges over the past two weeks, new spending that was not included in any of the three budgets that the minister brought in over the past year.
Is it not true that the Liberals have thrown away any fiscal plan they may have had in their desperate effort to distract voters from their decade of corruption? +-
Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, on fiscal matters, the hon. gentleman is flatly wrong, but let me deal with another issue.
I understand today that the opposition leader is travelling to British Columbia, where the Prime Minister is at the aboriginal summit. I hope the opposition leader will take the opportunity to apologize to the Prime Minister for the outrageous smears that he made in the House yesterday, and that members of his shadow cabinet repeated outside the House.
We have seen this kind of thing before from the Leader of the Opposition. This time I hope he shows a little dignity. +-
Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, CPC): Mr. Speaker, there is still $40 million missing. Nobody knows where it went. There is nothing to apologize for on this side of the House.
No one can keep track of how many billions of tax dollars the Liberals have made in bogus promises this week. According to the former senior finance official Don Drummond, “The fall update isn't even two weeks old, but already we need a scorecard”. Liberal insider Warren Kinsella says that it is “like 100 monkeys on drugs, writing cheques”.
How do the Liberals plan to pay for this reckless pre-election spending spree? Do they plan to raise taxes, run up deficits or just ignore their promises? +-
Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the opposition members cannot get away with a diversionary tactic. Their leader in the House yesterday made absolutely unacceptable remarks. Those remarks cannot stand.
The Leader of the Opposition is on his way to British Columbia. He should take the opportunity to meet there with the Prime Minister, apologize for his remarks, retract the offensive comments and for once, depart from his pattern of meanness and show a little dignity and courage. +-
Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, CPC): Mr. Speaker, it is quite interesting to hear the gentleman and that party talk about meanness after what they have done to our country over the last 10 years. In less than 60 days, there will be a prime minister in the House who has the respect of all Canadians.
The Liberals continue to threaten to punish Canadians if there is an election soon. They threaten to withhold benefits from seniors and soldiers if there is an election. Now the member for Vancouver Centre is claiming that the 2010 winter Olympics will be jeopardized if Canadians go to the polls. That makes as much sense as their previous accusations that British Columbians were burning crosses on their lawns.
Why do the Liberals not stop trying--
David Dingwall +-
Mr. Brian Pallister (Portage—Lisgar, CPC): Mr. Speaker, we could describe the Liberals' billion-dollar-a-day spending spree in a lot of ways: pathetic, pork-barrel and desperation come to mind, but we cannot say it is secretive. There is nothing hidden about this agenda. It is pure old-fashioned vote-buying.
Maybe there is one thing they are hiding and that is David Dingwall's severance. We understand that David Dingwall has now negotiated his severance deal in anticipation of a change in government.
Since the government is so very open about its spending, perhaps it could assure Canadians today that the amount of money it is paying David Dingwall will be made public. +-
Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, there was a very telling news report last night on one of the national networks that reviewed a number of the announcements that the government has made: labour market partnership agreements, new military equipment, help for farmers, help for softwood lumber, help for senior citizens, residential fuel, aboriginals and so forth. The reporter pointed out that the member's party, which criticizes the government every day in the House, has made not one commitment to retract any one of those investments that the Government of Canada has made.
I only take it that it supports every one of those investments. +-
Mr. Brian Pallister (Portage—Lisgar, CPC): Mr. Speaker, Canadians will note the evasiveness of the minister's answer and the fact that he absolutely avoided answering the question. Also, they will note the fact that before every election Liberals pretend to care about Canadians and after every election they only care about Liberals.
They gave David Dingwall a big, fat patronage post, they let him spend like a drunken Liberal and now they are proposing to pour even more money into the trough that Dingwall eats from, a public trough.
If the Liberals are going to do that, they should at least have the decency to be public, honest and forthright about what they are going to pay him in severance.
Can Canadians finally hear a commitment from the government as to how much-- +-
The Deputy Speaker: The hon. Minister of Finance. +-
Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, to the best of my knowledge, that matter is in the hands of the lawyers and the government will be guided by the appropriate legal advice.
Liberal Party of Canada +-
Mr. Rob Moore (Fundy Royal, CPC): Mr. Speaker, when Canadians owe the government money, it pursues them relentlessly. When law-abiding citizens are caught up in some tax dispute, the Canada Revenue Agency will hound and threaten them until every last cent is paid. In many cases, they will be sued for any amounts owing, plus interest, plus costs.
However, when the Liberal Party actually steals taxpayer money and gets caught red-handed, the government does nothing. Why the double standard?
When will the government sue the Liberal Party to recover the millions of taxpayer dollars that are still missing? +-
Hon. Walt Lastewka (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am sure everyone has known right from the beginning that when Gomery did his work he worked hard to get it done. In January the opposition and other people insisted that Gomery do his work. Gomery has done his work. Gomery has reported. The Liberal Party of Canada has acted. The opposition knows that we acted as soon as Gomery made his report. We look forward to Gomery's second report.
* * *
[Translation] +-Liberal Party of Canada +-
Mr. Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, CPC): Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Liberal Party did not do its homework.
On the eve of the next general election, Canadians are entitled to know whether the Liberals are preparing to conduct a fourth campaign with dirty money. Eighteen riding associations in eastern Quebec received dirty money during the 1997 election campaign.
When will the Liberals put an end to the culture of secrecy and publish the list of those 18 associations that violated the law by accepting dirty money? +-
The Deputy Speaker: The hon. member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup.
Health +-
Mr. Steven Fletcher (Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the Liberal health record is abysmal. After 12 years of mismanagement, wait times have doubled. The government cut $25 billion from the health care system and cut medical school enrollments.
The Quebec federal Liberals have endorsed privately funded health care. Too many Canadians have no access to the health care system.
The Supreme Court has condemned the Liberal record. We still have no science based benchmarks, despite promises that they would be in place by year's end. It is just one broken promise after the other.
Will the government finally admit that only a new Conservative government will fix the Liberal health care disaster? +-
Hon. Robert Thibault (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, if the past can be a gauge of the future and we had a new Conservative government like we had in the old Conservative government, we would go back to $40 billion annually in debt.
Forty-two billion dollars is the exact amount of money that the Minister of Finance negotiated with the provinces to improve the health care system, working to reduce wait times in five key areas. We are awaiting the agreements and the benchmarks that were negotiated with the provinces.
This government has done its job responsibly in taking public access to health care into the future.
Á +-(1140) +-
Mr. Steven Fletcher (Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, CPC): Mr. Speaker, even the parliamentary secretary admits that we are waiting to deal with the wait times.
The government is not only incompetent, but it lacks all compassion. Tainted blood victims continue to suffer, waiting for compensation that they justly deserve.
Aboriginals living in remote communities endure substandard living conditions and inadequate health care. The government refuses to fully fund and implement the Canadian strategy for cancer control, even though all cancer stakeholders support it and it is the will of the House.
How can the government claim to be on the side of Canadians when it demonstrates so little compassion? +-
Hon. Robert Thibault (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the government reached a memorandum of understanding with those suffering from hepatitis. We are negotiating with them, working alongside them to ensure our money goes exactly where it is needed.
We have invested in research: $300 million into the Canadian chronic disease strategy that includes cancer, diabetes and all other chronic diseases in Canada, a record amount of money and have reversed the brain drain. We have invested in the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The Canadian research system, medically and otherwise, is working very well.
Liberal Party of Canada +-
Mr. Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, CPC): Mr. Speaker, in recent weeks members of the government have made reference to a payment of $1.14 million that was made from the Liberal Party to the Government of Canada in partial repayment of illicit moneys received as a result of the sponsorship program.
I would like to ask if the government could please table a copy of the cancelled cheque, both sides of it, so we can indeed ensure that this money was received by the Government of Canada. +-
Hon. Walt Lastewka (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we have answered questions from that member a number of times in the House, but let me repeat what the deputy leader of the Conservative Party said just a few weeks ago: “We know that every recommendation that will come out of the second Gomery report will already have been adopted and acted upon and all the transparency and accountability mechanisms already in place”. That came from the deputy leader of the opposition. I thank him very much for having confidence in Justice Gomery.
Justice Gomery did his work in his first report and he will do his work in his second report--
Staying in school and getting a good education or apprenticeship will help,but not when they live in fear when violent criminals are back on the streets via the revolving door justice system to threaten them.Drugs and fast money are lures to the young when they see there are no serious consequences for their local "gunslinging heroes" .Trying to make excuses for today's stone killers won't stop them. Serious consequences for their actions will slow them down.
If the governments were remotely interested in stopping the escalation, they should make sure that the good folks in housing complexes aren't threatened by the gangsters.That would be a first start if they were in the least bit interested. When people can live free of violence and threats near their homes on a sustained basis, then they might come forward to assist and it would snowball.Allowing drug dealers to operate in lobbies or walk down your hallways ,jaut after they were released doesn't inspire confidence in the justice system by residents of a complex.All the social engineering proposals years down the road is just another excuse to do nothing today.
1000 officers, 2 years down the road won't help today.Sooner or later, they will have to address the brain drain which is another serious problem.Putting violent criminals away for longer periods of time will take some of the strain off the police manpower shortage today, if some people actually cared.The let's make a deal and revolving door justice system dealing with violent criminals doesn't protect the public.They can dance and talk all they want but this problem didn't crop up overnight and won't be going away soon unless the politicians start confronting reality instead of buck passing.
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