CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 140 Ï NUMBER 105 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 38th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Tuesday, May 31, 2005 (Part A) Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire´´ at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 6371 HOUSE OF COMMONS Tuesday, May 31, 2005 The House met at 10 a.m. [English] HEALTH Prayers Ms. Bonnie Brown (Oakville, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 12th report of the Ï (1000) Standing Committee on Health. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and a motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, May 19, your [English] committee recommends that Health Canada initiate a campaign to ensure compliance with the Tobacco Act. COMMISSIONER OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGES The Deputy Speaker: I have the honour pursuant to section 66 of GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND ESTIMATES the Official Languages Act to lay upon the table the annual report of the Commissioner of Official Languages, in both official languages, Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have covering the period from April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005. the honour to present, in both official languages, the seventh report [Translation] of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. The committee has studied the supplementary estimates Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(f), this report is deemed to for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, and has agreed to report have been permanently referred to the Standing Committee on them without amendment. Official Languages. *** ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS PETITIONS Ï (1005) FOREIGN AFFAIRS [English] Mr. Navdeep Bains (Mississauga—Brampton South, Lib.): Mr. CANADA FOUNDATION FOR SUSTAINABLE Speaker, I rise today to present a petition with respect to an DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGY organization called STAND Canada, Students Taking Action Now: Hon. Larry Bagnell (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister Darfur. Between March 16 and April 7 they put together signatures of Natural Resources, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister from universities across the country and from various high school of Natural Resources and pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), I am campuses as well. The petitioners call upon Canada and the pleased to table, in both official languages, the 2004 corporate plan Government of Canada to take a leadership role in Darfur by summary of the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development broadening the AU mandate, gathering international support for the Technology. African Union, bringing criminals to justice at the ICC, and considering intervention with like-minded states. *** [Translation] MARRIAGE COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of a number of Canadians, FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE including petitioners from my own riding of Mississauga South, on Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the subject matter of marriage. The petitioners would like to draw to I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th the attention of the House that the majority of Canadians believe that report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Interna- the fundamental matters of social policy should be decided by tional Trade on the United Nations oil for food scandal investigation. elected members of Parliament and not by the unelected judiciary. 6372 COMMONS DEBATES May 31, 2005 Supply The petitioners also wish to point out that it is the duty of the conclusion of Justice Gomery's commission people are held to Parliament to ensure that marriage is defined as Canadians wish it to account and will suffer consequences. be defined. Therefore, the petitioners would like to call upon Parliament to use all possible administrative and legislative means, It is of some concern that under the current terms of reference the including the invocation of section 33 of the charter, commonly commissioner is directed to perform his duties “without expressing known as the notwithstanding clause, to preserve and protect the any conclusion or recommendation”. That is our concern. We want current definition of marriage as being the legal union of one man to make this crystal clear. I know that the government's response has and one woman to the exclusion of all others. been that under the current wording he now has the ability to assign responsibility and name names. If that in fact is the case the *** government members should support this motion, because this just QUESTIONS ON THE ORDER PAPER really confirms that. Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.): By almost any measurement, with the money involved and the Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand. depth of the corruption in ad scam, with the involvement of senior activists, the sponsorship scandal is the worst scandal in Canadian The Deputy Speaker: Is that agreed? history. We owe it to Canadians to use every available tool to get to Some hon. members: Agreed. the bottom of what happened and punish those responsible. Members opposite are fond of saying that we should let the commission do its work. I agree. The problem is that the limitations GOVERNMENT ORDERS of section (k) in the current Gomery commission could prevent Ï (1010) Justice Gomery from completing his task. It is arguable, and I [English] acknowledge this, that the government would say this is already there. If the government truly believes that, then it will have no SUPPLY problem in supporting our motion because it removes any ambiguity. OPPOSITION MOTION—GOMERY COMMISSION It is the Liberals who have established a $1 million taxpayer Mr. Gary Lunn (Saanich—Gulf Islands, CPC) moved: funded war room in the PCO to help reduce the damaging daily That this House call on the Government to amend section (k) of the Gomery testimony from the Gomery commission. When we see the actions of Commission's terms of reference to allow the Commissioner to name names and assign responsibility. the government and when it sets up a war room to spin its way out of this using taxpayers' money, one has to question what its motives are He said: Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member and where it is going. Political parties set up war rooms. for Battlefords—Lloydminster. Governments do not. I am pleased to rise today to speak to our first Conservative Let us imagine the current Prime Minister, days after the opposition day motion in what is coming up to a couple of months commission started, taking a million dollars of taxpayers' money now. Although we would have liked to have had one sooner, I can to set up a war room to do damage control for the Liberal Party. It assure the House that we are here to work, to ensure that democracy goes from bad to worse. The Liberals just do not learn. Political is upheld and to continue to do the business of the House. parties spinning a story using taxpayers' money is absolutely I would like to read for members the motion that would change unacceptable. That is exactly what they are doing. That party across section (k) of the Gomery commission's terms of reference: the way does not need a wire brush. Those members need to finally That this House call on the Government to amend section (k) of the Gomery acknowledge and make a commitment to the truth. Commission's terms of reference to allow the Commissioner to name names and assign responsibility. Let us look at what has happened over the past 10 years. We have For the benefit of those who are not familiar with section (k) of the had information about what has been going on in the program, yet Gomery commission's terms of reference, the current wording states: nothing has ever happened. Let us look a few of the facts. —the Commissioner be directed to perform his duties without expressing any conclusion or recommendation regarding the civil or criminal liability of any Ï (1015) person or organization and to ensure that the conduct of the inquiry does not jeopardize any ongoing criminal investigation or criminal proceedings;.... In 1995 a memo from Public Works warned that the program was seriously flawed but nothing was ever done. In 1999 the Treasury Because of the current wording, there is some ambiguity about Board Secretariat warned that Groupaction was charging exorbitant whether Justice Gomery has the ability to name names or amounts of money for work that was never done and yet there was organizations responsible for the ad scam. no response from the government. We want to make it absolutely crystal clear so that there is no ambiguity. We want to ensure that he can deliver a report on what In 2002 an internal audit at Public Works showed that the went wrong in terms of process, but more important, recommend sponsorship was not being properly tracked. Nothing was done. changes and also ensure that if there are people who should be Worse than nothing, a new agency was created to run the program further investigated this will be done. It is critically important that at which had even fewer financial controls. May 31, 2005 COMMONS DEBATES 6373 Supply In 2002 the Prime Minister, then minister of finance, received a used to buy votes, the other half was used to pay Liberal friendly letter from the Liberal national policy chair stating that there were advertising agencies and millions more were funneled back to the “persistent and growing rumours that funds from the sponsorship Liberal Party.