Hansard
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 1 - 15 of 47
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, two copies of the 2002-03 annual report of the Canadian Forces Housing Agency.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question because it gives me a chance to say that the minister is busy at this time looking for other options to assist D-Day veterans, the Battle of Normandy veterans who wish to return to France.
The member opposite has also criticized the people going over there. I would like to let the member know that the people who are going over there are going to help out the 60 veterans who are going. They are groups such as the Royal Canadian Legion, the army, navy and air force, cadets, the youth, pipers, the padres, medical people.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, obviously the member opposite was not listening to the announcement this week made on the new bill.
Besides that, as far as the Normandy trip, it was not decided by Veterans Affairs; it was decided by regimental associations, naval associations and air force associations who would go on the trip.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, in actual fact what the member is not mentioning is that there will be ceremonies all across Canada on that day and they will have a chance to participate in those. As I said before, we are looking at ways to assist others to go.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I thought I was clear before that Veterans Affairs does not choose the veterans who go. This is done by the regiments and the different associations. It is not Veterans Affairs that chooses.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association, which represented Canada at the joint committee meetings of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and at the annual consultation between the Economics and Security Committee and the OECD held in Brussels and Paris on February 15 to 19, 2004.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the question. It certainly gives me an opportunity to talk about what our government has been doing, all the good parts.
First of all, as the member opposite well knows, defence is certainly at the forefront of the government's agenda which we have talked about since December.
The Speech from the Throne, budget 2004, the new national security policy as well as recent investments in key capital equipment, all highlight the government's ambitious security and defence agenda.
Regarding the Prime Minister's announcements on new search and rescue aircraft, the quotations are in the mail right now. The mobile gun system, which was recently announced, was a new project. That was not one that has been hanging for years, as the member opposite had said.
The maritime helicopter project is one that has been hanging for years, but on the other hand it has probably been good in many ways because we have a great bidding process. We have some really good competitors out there and the type of equipment we are going to get is going to be much more advanced than what we were looking at before.
The other project of course is the support ships, which is very important. This is something that has been talked about for awhile but has come up and we are moving ahead much quicker than what was planned before.
When we talk about budget 2004, we certainly put a lot forward there, but we have to remember that the budgets of 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003, all had huge defence increases in them. This clearly demonstrates the government's commitment to defence. In fact, the member opposite said that there was no money in budget 2004. There was roughly $1.6 billion in new funding for national defence.
Mrs. Cheryl Gallant: That was just to cover the operation.
Hon. David Price: The member opposite is saying that was to cover the operation, but she was just saying we were robbing out of capital to cover operations.
In fact, that is what we are doing here. We are putting money into operations, money for the incremental costs for Haiti and Afghanistan. That is exactly what we were supposed to be doing. We are not taking the money out of National Defence. We had separate money that went directly in for those costs.
Maybe we should talk about, and the member opposite is certainly aware, Roto 0 and the people who went to Afghanistan. They did an incredible job there. We must congratulate them for that. Regarding the equipment they had, the member opposite was also at the SCONDVA the other day when we had General Leslie before the committee. He explained very clearly to a question posed of whether they had the necessary equipment. He replied that everything they asked for, they got. There was no question and no problem for capital expenditures and operations. They got everything they needed, so that has been very clear.
I want to mention the role of our reserves in Afghanistan. They have done an incredible job over there. We talk about the three Ds as our policy now. When we go into a country that has problems and we are going to work there, it is not just defence. We go in with defence, diplomacy and development. Our reserves are doing a lot of the development work. That is incredible and it is an incredible role for Canada to take up.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Speaker, the member opposite mentioned NATO and what we are doing at NATO. I think we do an incredible job and NATO thinks we do an incredible job.
We are looking at long term spending. We are looking at capital expenditures. We are talking now of $27.5 billion over the next 15 years.
The member opposite also mentioned that we were at the bottom of the list in spending at NATO. In actual fact, we are number seven in dollars spent. We are actually about midway and climbing that rope very, very quickly.
As for looking at interoperability, we go much further than that. We are sitting down with our NATO partners and looking at the different things we can do to complement each other. One of them, of course, is the air to air refueling. We are working with Germany in setting up that type of equipment. When we go into NATO operations, we will actually be servicing other countries. That is just an example of some of the things we are doing.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, let me talk about Compton--Stanstead, the jewel of Quebec's eastern townships.
Do members know that Compton--Stanstead is the home of some great Canadians? Why one of Canada's greatest prime ministers, the Right Hon. Louis St. Laurent, called it home. In fact our current Prime Minister is our neighbour.
Folksinger David Francy, who just won another Juno Award, writes his award winning music from the inspiration drawn from its beauty and cultural harmony.
A little-known fact is that Bishops College School is home to Canada's oldest cadet corps. This year it will be celebrating 125 years.
Did I mention it is also the home of the Hon. Jean Charest, the Premier of Quebec; the Hon. Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, the Deputy Premier; and the Hon. Pierre Reid, Quebec's Minister of Education?
Even Hollywood is getting in on the act. Veteran Hollywood actor Donald Sutherland has a home there.
On top of all that, Compton--Stanstead is surrounded by some of the finest members in the House, such as the member for Shefford, the member for Frontenac—Mégantic and the member for Brome—Missisquoi.
Mr. Speaker, even you have sampled this wonderful corner of Quebec, Compton—Stanstead.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, on Friday I had the great pleasure of showing my constituents the relevance of the budget recently tabled by my colleague, the Minister of Finance.
On behalf of my colleague, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, I announced some good news to the people who work at the Pavillon des arts et de la culture de Coaticook.
As part of the Arts Presentation Canada program, the Minister of Canadian Heritage delivered on an announcement made in the most recent federal budget. Our government has provided $15,000 in financial support for this important cultural centre.
This money will help the Pavillon des arts et de la culture de Coaticook achieve its goal of familiarizing people from the region with the situations of francophones in other provinces and countries. A series of performances by artists from Ontario, New Brunswick, and British Columbia, as well as from France and Belgium, will be given at the pavilion.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
First, Mr. Speaker, I believe the original question was on Hewlett-Packard. I just wanted the member opposite to know that in April 2003, in a routine audit of contractor records, we identified irregularities at that point in the management of the Hewlett-Packard contracts. The contract was to provide hardware maintenance for computer equipment to DND on an “as and when requested” basis.
We found those irregularities, saying, “Okay, there is a problem there”; we must remember that we are talking about internal identification. In addition, in September 2003 we initiated a thorough forensic audit, engaging the assistance of PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada, an outside firm. To be thorough, we decided to look back 10 years just to see what was going on or to find what could have been problems in those 10 years previous to this. A civilian employee of DND with oversight of the contract was subsequently dismissed and the matter was referred to the RCMP. That is ongoing.
The Offices of the Auditor General and the Comptroller General have been kept apprised of the ongoing audits. In fact, the Auditor General has indicated that management and the internal audit group are handling the issue in a way that seems extremely appropriate.
Hewlett-Packard has a contractual agreement with the Government of Canada and we do not believe that it fulfilled the terms of this agreement. The government contracted Hewlett-Packard to provide specific information management and information technology services.
The government has also demanded that Hewlett-Packard remit to the Department of National Defence the amount of $159 million or provide evidence to substantiate the delivery of goods and services in respect of these amounts.
The department has at this point withheld payments of approximately $50 million that were pending to Hewlett-Packard until the final outcome of the audits.
The government would have been irresponsible not to take these actions, but additional steps have also been taken.
As part of the department's ongoing comptrollership plan, financial controls have been strengthened. The Crown is continuing to investigate the amount of money that may have been wrongfully paid out under the contracts. Also, an interdepartmental team of officials is meeting regularly to direct future actions. The file has been referred to the RCMP, which is conducting a criminal investigation, as well as the Department of Justice civil litigation branch. The government reserves the right to claim from HP any further amounts determined to have been wrongfully invoiced under the HP contracts with Public Works and Government Services Canada for DND.
The government is taking active and decisive steps to ensure that this matter is resolved satisfactorily.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, we will go back to the original question, which was on Hewlett-Packard. Again I will say that we found the problem ourselves with an internal audit. Action has been taken. There has been somebody fired. The RCMP is in the investigation. We are taking steps to get back any money for which work was not actually performed. Therefore, I think we are doing all that we can at this moment. We will continue to look a lot more closely in the future to make sure we do not get into this type of situation.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to invite my colleagues to discover for themselves the beauty of the riding I have the honour to represent.
Those who would like a preview of the magnificent landscapes and superb historic buildings that are found all over my riding can go to see two films which have just been released and which were filmed in Compton—Stanstead last summer.
The first, Taking Lives, starring Angelina Jolie, was filmed in the heart of the town of Stanstead. Hollywood worked its magic, for the film crew arrived in July to shoot wintry scenes in this charming town.
The second film, The Secret Window, stars Johnny Depp. It was filmed in the picturesque village of North Hatley, where French President Jacques Chirac also vacationed last summer.
The riding of Compton—Stanstead is an extraordinary place.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I suggest that all questions be allowed to stand.
View David Price Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I believe it is important to focus attention on the role Canada will be playing in maintaining stability in Haiti, during the very troubled times that country is going through.
Last week, my colleague, the hon. Minister of National Defence, announced that 425 Canadian soldiers will be assigned to duties in Haiti. Helicopters will be sent to assist this contingent in fulfilling its mission.
The situation in Haiti has attracted the attention of the international community. The community of nations is aware that the people of that country are at great risk because of the unrest. That is why Canada has a duty to intervene.
I believe all my colleagues will agree that the government has a duty to take action in order to restore peace in Haiti.
Results: 1 - 15 of 47 | Page: 1 of 4

1
2
3
4
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data