OTTAWA—The NDP revealed more confidential emails about last year’s $50-million G8 spending spree in Muskoka and accused the Conservatives of adopting an ethical double standard when it comes to using taxpayers’ money.“Conservatives seem to think a different set of rules applies to them,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus after releasing documents his party obtained from the town of Huntsville.
Angus said the emails indicate Conservative MP Tony Clement had little use for the normal government checks and balances on spending when Ottawa was dispersing millions of dollars into the Muskoka region in advance of the 2010 G8 summit in Huntsville.
The NDP said one of the emails suggests Clement (then federal industry minister) concurred with Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty that federal bureaucrats at Infrastructure Canada were getting in the way by conducting a review of planned G8 spending.
Doughty wrote to Clement, saying “this is totally unacceptable — I am sure you agree,” according to the email. Clement responded right away, saying, “I agree. I’m working on it.”
The New Democrats have accused the Conservatives of setting up a “parallel” funding process deliberately organized to skirt normal government oversights when Ottawa handed out the G8 legacy fund in Clement’s Parry Sound-Muskoka riding last year. Clement is now Treasury Board President.
“We see that all normal checks and balances were removed,” Angus told reporters on Monday.
“It’s as if he was driving around Muskoka giving the money out of the back of his car,” he said.
The emails — the second batch released by Angus — were obtained from the Town of Huntsville by the NDP using municipal freedom of information legislation.
They highlight that Clement had a cosy relationship with Muskoka-area mayors in the run-up to the G8 summit, held at Huntsville’s Deerhurst resort. They show that he was involved in setting up the local committees that ultimately picked the projects to get federal funding. He was even trying to smooth the ruffled feathers of some local leaders who felt they were being treated as “second-class” mayors in the process.
They reveal that Clement was talking to the town about providing federal cash for a community centre to use as a media centre. But in December, 2008, those plans appear to go off the rails when town officials get word the media centre won’t be located in Huntsville.
“Bullcrap. That’s the RCMP agenda, not ours … Don’t talk to media until we talk & get our lines converged,” Clement writes Doughty.
In July, 2009, Doughty writes Clement about a meeting with Tim Charlebois of the Ontario Provincial Police who says costs need be sent as a package to Treasury Board.
“Sounds like that could take a few months by the way he spoke,” Doughty writes, adding that the town has spent its operating capital and will need to start borrowing.
“We both know that this has some political dynamite attached to it. Can you give me any guidance as to how we navigate this issue as we have yet to receive anything from Ottawa,” Doughty says.
Twenty minutes later, Clement responds.
“Claude: Tim is full of bulloney. He doesn’t know what’s (sic) he’s talking about. We intend to finalize the contribution agreements this week & money flows thereafter,” Clement writes.
On May 23, 2010, the community centre in Huntsville was re-opened after being refurbished with summit funding.
Later that day, Doughty and Clement patted each other on the back.
“Tony we nailed that one. We ARE a team! Through my darkest hours you were there for me. A great day for huntsville (sic). A great day for Canada. Legacy rules,” Doughty said.
Clement wrotes back, “Great work Claude. We’ve changed our Community for the Ages.”
The two also teamed up to combat any negative impressions about Ottawa’s Muskoka spending spree.
At one point Doughty asks Clement how he should respond to a phone call from Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy’s office asking about delays in getting out infrastructure cash.
“What would you like me to do,” Doughty writes the federal minister. “Happy to not respond or issue a press release about how effectively the infrastructure money is flowing.”
Clement responds, “Yes, any release or statement you could do to correct his erroneous impression would be helpful.”
In another email, Doughty writes Clement to discuss a memorial park, adding “don’t want you blindsided by some knuckle dragging old liberals.”
Angus conceded Monday that the NDP could be stymied in their attempts to see further formal probes of the G8 spending. His request to have the Commons’ ethics committee examine the spending is expected to be turned down by Conservative MPs who hold the majority on the committee.
He said the collection of emails obtained by the NDP will be turned over to the police but was unable to say what if any laws may have been broken in the G8 spending “boondoggle.”
Clement has denied any wrongdoing in connection the dispersal of the $50-million fund but the Conservatives have acknowledged that the federal auditor general was right to conclude in June that the funding process lacked transparency and accountability.
In his report, interim auditor general John Wiersema painted a disturbing picture of Clement and several confidantes hand picking the G8 legacy projects — with no bureaucratic oversight or paperwork — that ultimately got $45.7 million in federal funding.
The auditor general also found that the Conservatives misled Parliament by passing off the G8 legacy fund as part of an $83-million investment to reduce border congestion when they sought Parliament’s approval for funding.
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Source: Toronto Star
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