37th Parliament, 3rd Session
(February 2, 2004 - )

[Parliamentary Coat-of-Arms]

Edited Hansard • Number 052

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

ORAL QUESTIONS

Government [Firearms] Contracts

[Hansard – Page 3039]

    Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the public safety minister's firearms office said it has no knowledge and no records of a mystery $150,000 firearms communications contract that is the subject of fraud charges against Chuck Guité and Jean Brault. The minister even said that this contract had nothing to do with the operation of the gun registry.  This does not pass the smell test.  How is it possible that the minister who was responsible for the gun registry for so many years knows nothing about these mystery contracts?

    Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.): In fact, Mr. Speaker, I can be absolutely frank. I have no knowledge of the two contracts that were referred to yesterday in relation to charges laid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. As I think the hon. member knows, charges have been laid. This matter is now before the courts. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further on the specific case other than to say I have no knowledge of the two contracts referred to in the charges.

    Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC): Mr. Speaker, it gets even worse. We have documents from the minister's own department which show that Groupaction was getting government firearms contracts after the Auditor General blew the whistle on the first $330,000 bogus contract. For years, the minister has repeatedly said she was fully accountable and responsible for the firearms program. Why does she not finally accept some responsibility instead of claiming ignorance every time a new scandal in the gun registry is exposed?

    Hon. Stephen Owen (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, in May 2002 the Auditor General and the Government of Canada referred Groupaction files to the RCMP for investigation. In June of that year, public works stopped all contracting with any agency that had files referred to the RCMP. In August 2002, if the members opposite are at all interested in listening to the answer, we stopped all contracting with any company whose files had been sent to the RCMP, including Groupaction.

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