How does the Prime Minister explain that his office altered such important passages in the Mike Duffy report?
Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, again, as I just said, it is quite clear that the Prime Minister's Office provided a great deal of assistance to both the crown and the RCMP in their case against Senator Duffy.
At the same time, I would hope that the opposition would provide that same level of co-operation and assistance to the Canadian taxpayer. As members know, there are some 68 members of the NDP caucus who owe Canadian taxpayers some $2.7 million because they paid for some illegal offices in Montreal. I certainly hope they will do the right thing for Canadian taxpayers and insist on returning that $2.7 million to them.
Mr. Peter Julian (Burnaby—New Westminster, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, we are not talking about kangaroo courts. We are talking about real courts with real police investigating the Conservatives.
The Prime Minister's Office cut a $90,000 cheque to keep Duffy quiet on residency issues and doctored an expense audit to avoid political and legal fallout. The Auditor General has sent 10 new cases of improper Senate spending to the RCMP, and 30 more senators will be forced to pay for improper expense claims. There are 44 cases of apparent abuse of the public trust. That is more than half the Senate. The Prime Minister's Office is involved up to its eyeballs.
Will the Prime Minister stop defending the unelected, unaccountable, and under investigation Senate?
Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, as you know, it was the Senate that invited the Auditor General, and of course we expect that the senators will assist the Auditor General in this examination.
However, there are 68 members of the NDP who owe a total of $2.7 million to the Canadian taxpayer. There are another 23 of them who owe $1.1 million back to the Canadian taxpayer. By my count, that is three-quarters of the NDP caucus. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition owes $400,000 to the taxpayers of Canada. It is New Democrats who are in front of the courts. It is they who are refusing to co-operate. It is real money. They should do the right thing for the taxpayer and pay it all back.