The Winnipeg Free Press has a potentially explosive article about a leak of part of the Auditor General’s report:
The Harper government misinformed Parliament to win approval for a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money on dubious projects in a Conservative riding, the auditor general has concluded.
And she suggests the process by which the funding was approved may have been illegal.
The findings are contained in the draft of a confidential report Sheila Fraser was to have tabled in Parliament on April 5. The report analyzed the $1-billion cost of staging last June’s G8 summit in Ontario cottage country and a subsequent gathering of G20 leaders in downtown Toronto.
It was put on ice when the Harper government was defeated and is not due to be released until sometime after the May 2 election. However, a Jan. 13 draft of the chapter on the G8 legacy infrastructure fund was obtained by a supporter of an opposition party and shown to The Canadian Press.
This could be the big break that the opposition parties have been waiting for: the leak is just about perfectly timed for maximum effect (just before the first debate), and the Auditor General has refused to discuss the news story or to give any interviews during the election campaign.
Any report that has “may have” isn’t a complete report and is next to useless, unless you are willing to use it as the press it going to use it, without facts. Just another baseless accusation by the media. The AG needs to step in and quash this by reminding the media that a leaked, incomplete report is just that, incomplete. Of course conjecture, and not truth, wins the day where the media is concerned. The agenda driven media will jump on anything they can to help defeat the CPC I guess.
Comment by Dwayne — April 12, 2011 @ 11:34
Oh, I don’t think this little “leak” is anything like “next to useless” from the point of view of the opposition parties. The less actual, confirmed details are known, the better. Much more opportunity for innuendo, implied wrongdoing, imagined cover-ups, and all the rest of the things that have brought governments down in the past. Facts are almost beside the point for this exercise.
For the record, I’m unimpressed with the Tories’ handling of the G8/G20 meetings and I find it possible that barely legal shenanigans were happening in the run up to those events. This “leak”, however has nothing to do with the facts, and everything to do with perceived political advantage.
Comment by Nicholas — April 12, 2011 @ 12:00
Your description is much better than mine. As you say, the less actual detail, the more innuendo and filth that can be piled on by both the opposition parties and the media. I guess what I was getting at was that the report isn’t an actual report until it is tabled, and therefore it is unfinished. That part will never be reported by the media though, and that is more the pity as the media shows their bias (according to some there is no bias, but I digress).
Like any kind of government spending, the amount quoted is wonky. Why would I include the cost of the salaries of all RCMP and Military personnel involved if they were going to be paid anyway? No only that, but would the Liberal or NDP turn down hosting an event due to security costs? I recall that there were numerous events held in Canada by the Liberal Party, and they all cost a lot of money, but you didn’t really hear about that. The G8 summit at Kanaskis had all the usual RCMP and Military involvement, I wonder how much that one cost? I was working in Cold Lake at the time and we flew constant Combat Air Patrols over the area, day and night, for 2 or 3 days. Hmmm, some enterprising CPC staffer should check into that one, I think 🙂
Comment by Dwayne — April 12, 2011 @ 14:31