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McGuinty calls probe into alleged 'slush fund'

hipacific(crystalblue)
本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Lee Greenberg, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, May 11, 2007 Article tools
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Font: * * * * TORONTO - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty gave in Thursday to three weeks of unrelenting pressure by opposition MPPs and requested an investigation by the Auditor General into an alleged Liberal slush fund.

McGuinty however, refused to offer his opponents the head of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle, the man responsible for a $32-million spending program that critics suggest was used to reward Liberal-friendly organizations.

"I am not prepared to do that," he told the assembly at Queen's Park. "I have had the opportunity to work very closely with Minister Colle. He is exceptional in terms of his work ethic, his dedication, his determination, his motivation and he has my continuing confidence."

The unnamed spending program dispersed a host of suspect grants, according to opposition MPPs, including $200,000 to an Iranian-Canadian group which boasted a Liberal election candidate, a Liberal riding association president and a longtime friend of Liberal Finance Minister Greg Sorbara on its board. All seven members of the board were Liberal donors.

Similar allegations were made about a Bengali group and a Chinese group, which boasted a one-time advisor to Colle as a director.

Colle has admitted the spending program, which has been tweaked in the wake of the controversy, had no formal application process, selection criteria or auditing provisions. The funds were not publicized and the program was unnamed.

Opponents labelled the program a political slush fund and suggest it was used to curry favour among ethnic voters.

While they welcomed Thursday's announcement, opposition MPPs say the investigation is above all an exercise in damage control.

"The government is obviously hoping they can make this go away now," said New Democrat leader Howard Hampton. "They're hoping this will go away and when the auditor's report comes in the hot days of July or August, they'll be able to bury it."

Conservative leader John Tory commended McGuinty on making what he said was a good decision after weeks of stubbornly resisting calls for an investigation.

"We've ended up in the right place," he told reporters. "Three weeks late, but we've ended up in the right place."

Tory also defended Conservative MPP Bob Runciman, who, in asking Thursday for reassurances that all appropriate evidence has been preserved, remarked he had seen a shredding truck outside government offices just one day earlier.

McGuinty said the former solicitor general's question was "dangerously close" to crossing a line.

"I think he asked a valid question," Tory told reporters, "which is what are we going to do to make sure all the evidence is preserved during the course of the auditors investigation, including emails and everything else."

Both opposition leaders persisted in their calls for Colle to step aside while the Auditor General performs his investigation.

"It's just completely bizarre how he can stay in his office as a cabinet minister while under investigation by the Auditor General," said Hampton.

The Auditor General's investigation comes just four months before a provincial election campaign which appears to be taking an increasingly nasty tone.

Ottawa Citizen更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
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Last Updated: 2007-5-11
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  • 枫下茶话 / 政治经济 / Colle aide's group tied to `slush funds' Email story Print Choose text size Report typo or correction Tag and save Chinese association got $250,000 grant -hipacific(crystalblue); 2007-5-5 {4558} (#3655593@0)
    本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛May 05, 2007 04:30 AM
    Rob Ferguson
    Queen's Park Bureau

    An adviser to provincial cabinet minister Mike Colle was a director and remains a member of a Chinese group granted $250,000 from what critics are calling a Liberal "slush fund," the Star has learned.

    The cheque was sent from Colle's citizenship and immigration ministry in late March to the Chinese Professionals Association of Canada in Scarborough to help build a new career counselling centre.

    Colle policy adviser Michael Huang confirmed yesterday he served on the association's board of directors until several months ago, although he's still listed as a director on the Corporations Canada website.

    "I've got no knowledge of that," he said when asked how the Chinese association got the grant.

    The $250,000 is part of $32 million Colle awarded to 110 groups – including several with Liberal ties – in the last two years for immigrant aid and other programs without a formal application process, a loophole the government has since closed amid opposition charges the money is a "slush fund."

    But this is the first time it has been revealed money went to a group with such close links to someone in Colle's office. Huang works in the minister's office on the sixth floor of a University Ave. office building.

    While Colle and Premier Dalton McGuinty have denied cash was funnelled to Liberal-friendly groups, critics are pushing for a special probe by Ontario's auditor general before the Oct. 10 provincial election to determine whether political favouritism played a role into how grants were awarded.

    The Liberals have voted down opposition motions for a special probe, arguing the auditor general is free to look at any spending as part of his annual review due out in December.

    Colle was not available for comment yesterday, but his spokesperson said the grant to the Chinese group and Huang's role in the minister's office are a coincidence and nothing more.

    Huang wasn't hired as a full-time adviser until March after serving with Colle's office under an Ontario civil service internship program for foreign-trained graduates since early last fall, said Rick Byun, the minister's senior communications adviser.

    "He was an intern, he was not involved in decision-making for funding," Byun said.

    The executive director of the Chinese Professionals Association, Dawin Kong, said yesterday the group submitted a proposal to Colle's ministry in February seeking $1 million toward a new career counselling centre.

    He said Huang, whom he described as a "lifetime member," did not play a role.

    "I seldom talk to him," said Kong. "He is no longer in management on the board. ... We don't touch any political affairs."

    Huang said he did not influence Colle in regard to the grant for the association, a registered, non-profit charity which was founded in 1992 and has more than 20,000 members.

    "I'm not involved in those grant things," Huang said in a brief telephone interview, acknowledging he was involved with the Chinese association for "several years" before quitting its board late last year.

    He said he could not remember the date of his resignation, but a story in Toronto Chinese-language daily newspaper Sing Tao pictured him last Oct. 16 after being re-elected for another term on the board.

    Liberal officials later approached the Star to offer details of Huang's departure from the board, with party spokesperson Ben Chin saying Huang quit to avoid "a potential conflict of interest."

    Byun described Huang as a "junior staffer" who did the right thing by resigning from the board.

    "He had cut his ties, it was all quite honourable," said Byun, who described Huang as a "success story" for getting hired full-time in the minister's office.

    He said Huang has a bachelor's degree in science from Beijing University and came to Canada in 1988 to earn a doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Toronto.

    The opposition parties have questioned a $200,000 grant a year ago to the Iranian-Canadian Community Centre, a group that is yet to build a community centre and has raised just $15,000 in other funds.

    The president of the Richmond Hill provincial Liberal riding association was a director until recently, as was nuclear safety expert Reza Moridi, who is seeking the Liberal nomination for the riding in the October election.

    Another grant for $250,000 went to the Bengali Cultural Society, whose director is a member of the Ontario Liberal Party.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
    • Ont. Liberals accused of running a political "slush fund" -hipacific(crystalblue); 2007-5-5 {3568} (#3655597@0)
      本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Lee Greenberg, CanWest News Service
      Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Article tools
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      Font: * * * * TORONTO - The McGuinty government was on the defensive Monday as more questions surfaced about hundreds of thousands of dollars in unscrutinized grants to groups with Liberal ties.

      The grants include $250,000 to the Ontario Khalsa Darbar, a Sikh organization in court over allegations of financial mismanagement, and $25,000 to an organization run by the common-law partner of Liberal MPP Bob Delaney.

      "Clearly this money was going out to organizations that have very close links to the Liberal party, including, as we find out today, the wife of a Liberal member of the legislature," said NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

      "I would be very embarrassed to come here and advocate that government money be extended to my wife or another member of my family ... I think the integrity commissioner has to look at this at the very least."

      Opposition MPPs accused Delaney of advocating for funding for his partner's organization on at least 19 occasions in the house.

      Speaking with reporters, Delaney, whose partner, Andrea Seepersaud, is the executive director of the Inter-Cultural Neighbourhood Social Services, appeared nonplussed about his role.

      "In each case when we read a petition, we run a draft by the ministry involved just to make sure there isn't any problem with it and there wasn't in this case," he said. "This organization is one of the crown jewels in our social services sector in Peel."

      The case is the latest in a string of end-of-year grants to come under the spotlight in the past seven days.

      About $32 million in last-minute, apparently unconditional grants were issued through the ministry of citizenship and immigration as part of the spending program, which has neither a formal application process nor any selection criteria. In fact, Citizenship Minister Mike Colle has admitted the program does not even have a name.

      The grants include $200,000 to an Iranian-Canadian group run by, among others, three prominent Liberals - including the president of the Liberal riding association in Richmond Hill, the current Liberal candidate in the riding and another director who counts Liberal Finance Minister Greg Sorbara among his good friends.

      The group was once classified as an animal protection agency and only registered as a charity three weeks before receiving the grant, according to documents.

      In a statement to the legislature Monday, Colle announced he has ordered changes to the program, creating "a distinct application process that is more clear, helpful and accessible to all communities."

      Conservative Leader John Tory, however, said that response was inadequate.

      He accused the Liberal government of operating a political "slush fund."

      "He's pleaded guilty to shoving taxpayers' money out the door without any accountability, no application form, no process."

      Inside the legislature, Tory grilled Colle about what he called two Liberal friendly groups that received money in 2006. One of those groups, the Ontario Khalsa Darbar, which "has failed to produce financial and corporate records" in the course of a court case it is currently embroiled in.

      The group also faces "allegations outstanding that some $2.5 million in membership fees are not reflected in the organization's books," he told the assembly.

      Colle replied that he would not act as "judge and jury" over the organization's financial management.

      Ottawa Citizen更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
      • Liberals defeat motion for auditor to probe grants -hipacific(crystalblue); 2007-5-5 {3497} (#3655664@0)
        本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Apr 26, 2007 07:57 PM
        Tobi Cohen
        Canadian press

        Frustration over the governing Liberals' decision to use their majority to stop the auditor general from investigating $20 million in last-minute grants doled out to multicultural groups brought the legislature to a standstill Thursday as the opposition waited for the minister to show up and account for his government's actions.

        The kind of hooliganism usually saved for soccer arenas swept across the legislature as critics took to banging on desks and stalling question period in protest that neither Premier Dalton McGuinty nor Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Mike Colle were around to answer questions.

        The protest came hours after a Liberal-dominated legislative committee voted down an opposition motion to have the province's auditor examine how $20 million in grants were handed out to various multicultural organizations – some of which are said to have Liberal ties – at the end of the last fiscal year without a formal application process.

        "This is about taxpayers' money being given out without application forms, without scrutiny, without review, without any process at all," Conservative Leader John Tory said outside the legislature after two of his members were thrown out during the ruckus.

        "It doesn't matter who it was given to – it's the way it was given out that's the issue here. You have to ask yourself what are they hiding? What are they afraid of when they won't let the auditor take a look at it?"

        The Liberals instead passed a motion urging the beneficiaries of the grants to account for their spending and to report back within six months, drawing further criticism from opposition members who suggest the timing is "convenient" given a report likely won't be ready until after the Oct. 10 election.

        "It just smacks of a McGuinty government that has been caught doing something very wrong," NDP Leader Howard Hampton said.

        "Now they are just desperate, desperate to avoid any accountability, any scrutiny, any transparency until after the election."

        But Colle said the auditor has the authority to look at any ministry it wants, and the issue will come before another committee for debate next month.

        "It was this government that expanded the powers of the provincial auditor general," Colle said in the legislature. "That office can look at any ministry any time it wants."

        The opposition parties shouldn't be questioning the legitimacy of the groups that benefited from the so-called slush fund, Colle said, adding he was late because he was visiting one of them to quell concerns over the controversy.

        But both Hampton and Tory suggested the battle, which has monopolized government business for the last week, will wage on until something is done about it.

        "This is an issue which will not go away because it's not just one case of money that was apparently handed out to an organization that was closely tied to Liberal politicians, it's more than one," Hampton said.

        "I think you're going to find more people coming forward and talking about the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, the lack of standards and rules and how this public money was just used wrongly."

        The grants were given to groups with apparent Liberal ties and without a formal application process. Critics also questioned how an animal welfare and baseball group qualified for funds aimed at helping new immigrants settle into the province.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
        • Liberal is a Liberal. No wonder in Alberta, Liberal is still a dirty word. My our province never infect such plague of cronyism -calgarian(ThanksFlames); 2007-5-5 (#3656481@0)
        • McGuinty calls probe into alleged 'slush fund' -hipacific(crystalblue); 2007-5-11 {3397} (#3669942@0)
          本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Lee Greenberg, CanWest News Service
          Published: Friday, May 11, 2007 Article tools
          Printer friendly

          E-mail
          Font: * * * * TORONTO - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty gave in Thursday to three weeks of unrelenting pressure by opposition MPPs and requested an investigation by the Auditor General into an alleged Liberal slush fund.

          McGuinty however, refused to offer his opponents the head of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle, the man responsible for a $32-million spending program that critics suggest was used to reward Liberal-friendly organizations.

          "I am not prepared to do that," he told the assembly at Queen's Park. "I have had the opportunity to work very closely with Minister Colle. He is exceptional in terms of his work ethic, his dedication, his determination, his motivation and he has my continuing confidence."

          The unnamed spending program dispersed a host of suspect grants, according to opposition MPPs, including $200,000 to an Iranian-Canadian group which boasted a Liberal election candidate, a Liberal riding association president and a longtime friend of Liberal Finance Minister Greg Sorbara on its board. All seven members of the board were Liberal donors.

          Similar allegations were made about a Bengali group and a Chinese group, which boasted a one-time advisor to Colle as a director.

          Colle has admitted the spending program, which has been tweaked in the wake of the controversy, had no formal application process, selection criteria or auditing provisions. The funds were not publicized and the program was unnamed.

          Opponents labelled the program a political slush fund and suggest it was used to curry favour among ethnic voters.

          While they welcomed Thursday's announcement, opposition MPPs say the investigation is above all an exercise in damage control.

          "The government is obviously hoping they can make this go away now," said New Democrat leader Howard Hampton. "They're hoping this will go away and when the auditor's report comes in the hot days of July or August, they'll be able to bury it."

          Conservative leader John Tory commended McGuinty on making what he said was a good decision after weeks of stubbornly resisting calls for an investigation.

          "We've ended up in the right place," he told reporters. "Three weeks late, but we've ended up in the right place."

          Tory also defended Conservative MPP Bob Runciman, who, in asking Thursday for reassurances that all appropriate evidence has been preserved, remarked he had seen a shredding truck outside government offices just one day earlier.

          McGuinty said the former solicitor general's question was "dangerously close" to crossing a line.

          "I think he asked a valid question," Tory told reporters, "which is what are we going to do to make sure all the evidence is preserved during the course of the auditors investigation, including emails and everything else."

          Both opposition leaders persisted in their calls for Colle to step aside while the Auditor General performs his investigation.

          "It's just completely bizarre how he can stay in his office as a cabinet minister while under investigation by the Auditor General," said Hampton.

          The Auditor General's investigation comes just four months before a provincial election campaign which appears to be taking an increasingly nasty tone.

          Ottawa Citizen更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net

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