Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Government leader, it has been just over a week since we learned of the extravagant hotel bill that Canadians will be footing for Canada’s delegation to the Queen’s funeral, which included a charge of a $6,000-per-night room at London’s Corinthia Hotel for five nights.

Senator Gold, I remind you that it was the current Prime Minister who promised Canadians transparency and accountability. Yet, on this expense, he remains tight-lipped about who stayed in the premium room. Now, if he is not ashamed of who stayed there, why won’t he tell us who it is? We now know definitely that it was not the Governor General as per a statement released by her office last week.

It is bad enough, Senator Gold, that Canadians are on the hook for this luxury invoice. By the looks of it, the only way to get to the bottom of this expense would be for someone to hire a private investigator.

Leader, will you give Canadians the transparency that they were promised by telling this chamber who stayed in that hotel room?

Senator Plett: Senator Gold, are you suggesting that one of these former Conservative prime ministers stayed in that room? That’s who you’re talking about. We understand there was a large delegation. They didn’t all stay in that room. This wasn’t a party room. The whole delegation didn’t stay there, although they should have. For $6,000 a night, the whole delegation should have stayed there.

Leader, I doubt that this is what Canadians expected when it comes to accountability and transparency. Your government’s claim to this expense as being appropriate and transparent — and, indeed, your claim to that — is appalling and shocking.

Senator Gold, since your government feels comfortable in its choices being appropriate, and if you are not ashamed of what your government has done, you should have no problem about being transparent and telling us who stayed in that room. I’m quite happy to ask former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper if he stayed in that room. I have a pretty good idea he is not going to tell me about how big the delegation was. He is going to tell me what room he stayed in.

What room did the Prime Minister stay in? Which room was the Prime Minister in at this hotel?

Senator Plett: Thank you. I apologize for breaking my own rule by having you ask for five minutes, but I didn’t know you were that close to your time.

Just one or two questions, Senator McCallum. First, what is your definition of senators sitting idle? The reason I’m asking that — I’ll preface it — is because I am the critic on this. When people suggest that we’re sitting idle, this last weekend — I didn’t keep track of the exact kilometres — I drove probably somewhere around 1,000 kilometres. I visited four different wildlife habitats, if you will. They’re not enclosures. They’re not zoos. One of them is Parc Safari; one of them is called the Granby Zoo; one is the Ecomuseum Zoo in Montreal; and the last one is Parc Omega in Montebello. Parc Omega is a facility that has over 2,000 acres — hardly an enclosure. The animals are all wild. They have big areas. They have three packs of wolves. Wolves was something that was important to you, Senator McCallum. This bill would do away with those wolves. Wolves are near extinction. You mentioned buffalo or bison. Of course, we’re from Manitoba. There are bison there — used to be a lot of bison — but bison are close to extinction.

What do we do, Senator McCallum, when these animals are close to extinction? Eliminating them from these facilities — some that have over 2,000 acres for these animals to roam around, I hardly think it is an enclosure.

I know you didn’t willfully intend anything, but a few senators now have talked about wishing people would speak on the issue. I’m planning on speaking on the issue, but I want to assure this entire chamber that I have no intention to speak on the issue until I have done the due diligence that, quite frankly, I believe — I’ll get to the question — the sponsor should be doing. From what I hear, he’s visited two of the places that I visited. I visited 10. Is that sitting idle, Senator McCallum? What would you suggest we do when animals become extinct and we’re saying that they can no longer be in human care? These keepers said they don’t like calling it captivity because it’s not captivity; it’s human care.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): I am wondering whether the senator would take a question.