Ms. Caroline St-Hilaire (Longueuil, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has acknowledged the existence of the national unity fund in his own budget. La Presse today reported that there was an envelope of $40 million concealed in this fund for 2002-03 alone. We do not know what the situation was prior to that.

In order to give us a better overview, can the Prime Minister tell us how much as finance minister he allocated to the national unity fund from 1993 on?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the current Prime Minister has not made any use of that particular reserve. He has asked the President of the Privy Council to examine the matter and to make recommendations on how best to deal with that reserve for the future.

Mr. Benoît Sauvageau (Repentigny, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, what we want to know is how much has been spent since 1993. The secret national unity fund did indeed exist and benefited from a hidden budget of $40 million. It is impossible that, as finance minister with responsibility for budgets, he could not have been aware of this.

So can the Prime Minister confirm to us that, from the time of his first budget, he authorized a secret fund, the existence of which was deliberately concealed from the public?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated, the Prime Minister, upon becoming Prime Minister, has not made any use whatsoever of that particular reserve. He has asked for the appropriate professional advice from the public service in the person of the President of the Privy Council to determine how best to handle it from here on forward.

Mr. Benoît Sauvageau (Repentigny, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, for the information of the Minister of Finance, I would like to point out that the Prime Minister was finance minister for nine years.

In budget after budget for those nine years, that is in nine budgets, the Prime Minister transferred considerable amounts to slush funds, thus becoming an accomplice to his predecessor, Jean Chrétien.

How can the Minister of Finance claim that the arrival of his government and a new Prime Minister represents a change from the way things were during the Chrétien years, when his actions while in Finance prove he was in it up to his neck?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated, the Prime Minister has not made any use of that fund and he is seeking advice from the public service in terms of how to dispose of it.

Ms. Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal gravy train has just made another stop, this time to pick up another old corporate pal of the Prime Minister, Purdy Crawford. Mr. Crawford served with the Prime Minister on the board of Imasco and contributed $5,000 to his leadership campaign.

It makes us wonder what we have to donate in order to get an appointment to the other place.

Mr. Crawford has just been hired by the CPP investment board as, get this, an adviser on conflict of interest and ethics. Protect whistleblowers or protect a pal? It is a tough call. Why does the government not get it and break the mould for Liberal friendly ethics counsellors and the trough of Liberal patronage?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the hon. member really wishes to cast aspersions upon this particular individual, who was recommended not more than two years ago as Canada's chief executive officer of the year.

Ms. Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, one has to wonder, when will this path of appointing corporate conservative cronies to Liberal boards and commissions end?

Canadians are demanding more and more that their pension funds be used for ethical investments, investments with no place for the scourge of tobacco companies. Mr. Crawford has been involved with the tobacco company Imasco since the early 1970s, as a board member with the Prime Minister and even as its CEO and president.

How can we expect ethical, neutral advice from a staunch defender of tobacco investment and marketing? Is the CPP Investment--

The hon. Minister of Finance.

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, there are of course established guidelines for dealing with investment issues of this kind.

I would also point out that if the hon. member wants to be critical of appointments, she might want to be critical of one of our advisers on municipal matters, which of course is Mr. Harcourt, and of one of our previous advisers on health care, which of course was Mr. Romanow.

The government obviously tries to seek the best advice it can. That includes, from time to time, New Democrats.

Mr. Gerry Ritz (Battlefords—Lloydminster, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, over the last 10 years public servants have come and gone and public works ministers have come and gone, but one person remained in control. That person is the present Prime Minister. He ran the finance department with an iron fist as it handed out these bogus contracts. He sat on Treasury Board even while his own department bent the rules. How can Canadians be expected to swallow the line that he did not know?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Again, Mr. Speaker, the hon. gentleman is relying on a hodgepodge of information to draw some inappropriate conclusions. The memorandum from Ms. O'Leary was clearly an argument for more competition, not less competition. The firm that the hon. gentleman and his party are complaining about, Groupe Everest, was in fact originally contracted by the Conservative Party, not the Liberal Party.

Mr. Gerry Ritz (Battlefords—Lloydminster, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, 10 years and they kept the ad company that ran off the rails. Something had to change and the Liberals did not do it.

Throughout those last 10 years of Liberal mismanagement, there has been one common thread weaving in and around the scandals, the corruption and the waste, and that one thread is the present Prime Minister. That hodgepodge of evidence the finance minister talks about points to him, and it is mounting. What will the excuse of the day be now that the Prime Minister's line, he did not know, has been shown to be a serious nose-stretcher?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I would point out that the Prime Minister's career in public life is a very well known career for Canadians. It is a career that is applauded by Canadians. It is supported by the vast majority of Canadians, even to the point when the pollsters asked members of the Conservative Party who was best able to lead the country, they said this Prime Minister.

Mr. Leon Benoit (Lakeland, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's career is becoming better known every day. The Prime Minister said he knew nothing about ad scam until 2002. The truth is that in 1995 he was told by Treasury Board, of which he was vice-chair, by the way, to stop breaking the rules in awarding contracts.

Months later, his staff were still breaking the rules. Ministerial staff simply do not wing it on their own. They follow orders. Why did the Prime Minister continue to break the rules and dole out contracts to his political friends?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I presume the hon. gentleman is referring to some comments that have been attributed to Monsieur Guité. I would point out to the hon. gentleman that the finance department disputed those allegations back in 1995 and continues to dispute them.

Mr. Leon Benoit (Lakeland, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that the common thread through all of this political mess and all this corruption is the current Prime Minister. He was told in 1995 by the Treasury Board, of which he was chair, to stop breaking the rules.

Why did the Prime Minister ignore these demands of Treasury Board, continue to break the rules and continue to hand out contracts to his political friends?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, there was a set of rules put in place in the early 1990s with respect to contracting procedures, which had to do, if the hon. gentleman is familiar with the details, with the old appendix Q to the government procurement regulations and so forth.

Throughout my investigation of those matters, I determined that the procedures laid out deserved to be strengthened. In fact, that strengthening took place during the course of 2002 and 2003 to revise the rules. Prior to that, all of the evidence before me would suggest that the Minister of Finance complied with all of the obligations upon him.

Ms. Christiane Gagnon (Québec, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, Jean Chrétien was prepared to do anything for the sake of national unity, even commit fraud and divert public funds. It seems the Chuck Guité approach was used in the flag campaign as well. We have learned that a flag maker, who is also the federal Liberal Party president in British Columbia, told the federal MPs of that province that rules were being violated.

Can anyone on the other side of the House deny that British Columbia MPs did nothing even though they knew what was going on?