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TTAWA - (Web posted March 12, 2002 @ 5 p.m.)
Rookie Public Works Minister Don Boudria was on the hot seat in the House of
Commons on Tuesday over the apparent disappearance of a 1999 government
commissioned report that cost taxpayers $550,000.
.JPG) Members
from all four Opposition parties grilled Boudria and the Liberals over the loss
of the report, which was commissioned to helped the government increase its
visibility.
In the House of Commons, Boudria repeated
for the second consecutive day that he didn't have the report but he did claim
to have supporting documents to prove that there actually was a report.
That didn't satisfy Canadian Alliance Leader
John Reynolds.
"We want to see the real document; we
want to see it in the House now," he said.
Boudria, who has repeatedly condemned the
fact the report is not available, promised to table the report when he actually
gets a copy.
It was a promise he made outside the House
too that at times seemed almost comical.
"If anyone has a copy of this report I
will hope they will give it to me so I can give it to you," said Boudria,
while speaking to reporters.
"There's no guarantee that the report,
that I don't have, and which I've never seen, will be made available to
me."
The Bloc Quebecois and Tory Leader Joe Clark
also asked Boudria to launch and inquiry into the matter.
"This is like an X files government,"
said Clark referring to the popular television show about paranormal events.
"Documents appear, they disappear;
they're invented when they need them and they can't be produced when they're
required in the House of Commons. All we know is if you're a Liberal and you
invent a document that can't be produced you get paid and that's wrong."
The company which produced the report, the
Montreal-based Groupaction, allegedly has close ties to the Liberal government.
Reynolds speculated that there's some
information in the report that the Liberals want to hide.
"What's in that document that's
missing?" he asked.
"You don't lose a document that you pay
a half-million dollar for. There must be something in that document they don't
want anyone to see."
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