You don't have to be an auditor-general to know some of the Harper Government's spending around last year's G-20 and G-8 event in Ontario was wasteful, partisan and even eridiculous. But that certainly is not the sort of message a party leader wants the electorate to be reminded of mere weeks before an election.
The issue came to light Monday as a result of the Canadian Press reporting on a leak of a draft copy of Sheila Fraser's report on the Conservative Government's June 2010 summit-related spending.
The AG's report, which apparently accuses the Harper Government of misinforming Parliament and using potentially illegal processes to gain approval for a $50 million G-8 infrastructure fund, initially was to be tabled in the Commons last week but its release had been delayed until after the May 2 vote.
The draft report, according to CP, states that Industry Minister Tony Clement, Huntsville's mayor and the manager of the Deerhurst resort chose the projects to receive government largesse without considering the real needs of the summit or appropriate funding rules.
This is no great surprise. The government was building gazebos 100 kilometers fom the summit and creating fake lakes that the public immediately recognized as wasteful and excessive. That so much cash would have been directed to the riding of a government minister is typical of the partisanship that often characterizes the decision making of a governing party.
Nonetheless Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, on the campaign trail in Ontario Monday, blasted the government for drunken-sailor spending, calling Fraser's revelations a "shocking relevelation". He's demanding the full report be immediately released.
The Harper Government, meanwhile, is insisting the AG's final report is quite different from the draft version.
This is a great issue for Ignatieff to take into tomorrow evening's debates.
Source: http://communities.canada.com
The issue came to light Monday as a result of the Canadian Press reporting on a leak of a draft copy of Sheila Fraser's report on the Conservative Government's June 2010 summit-related spending.
The AG's report, which apparently accuses the Harper Government of misinforming Parliament and using potentially illegal processes to gain approval for a $50 million G-8 infrastructure fund, initially was to be tabled in the Commons last week but its release had been delayed until after the May 2 vote.
The draft report, according to CP, states that Industry Minister Tony Clement, Huntsville's mayor and the manager of the Deerhurst resort chose the projects to receive government largesse without considering the real needs of the summit or appropriate funding rules.
This is no great surprise. The government was building gazebos 100 kilometers fom the summit and creating fake lakes that the public immediately recognized as wasteful and excessive. That so much cash would have been directed to the riding of a government minister is typical of the partisanship that often characterizes the decision making of a governing party.
Nonetheless Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, on the campaign trail in Ontario Monday, blasted the government for drunken-sailor spending, calling Fraser's revelations a "shocking relevelation". He's demanding the full report be immediately released.
The Harper Government, meanwhile, is insisting the AG's final report is quite different from the draft version.
This is a great issue for Ignatieff to take into tomorrow evening's debates.
Source: http://communities.canada.com
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