Ottawa

The G8 legacy fund

The Canadian Press gets a look at a chapter in the draft report of the Auditor General’s investigation into G8 funding.

The draft reveals that a local “G8 summit liaison and implementation team” — Industry Minister Tony Clement, the mayor of Huntsville, and the general manager of Deerhurst Resort which hosted the summit — chose the 32 projects that received funding. It says there was no apparent regard for the needs of the summit or the conditions laid down by the government…

The draft report says that in November 2009, the government tabled supplementary spending estimates which requested $83 million for a Border Infrastructure Fund aimed at reducing congestion at border crossings. But the government did not reveal that it intended to devote $50 million of that money to a G8 legacy fund, even though Huntsville is nowhere near the Canada-U.S. border.

When Michael Ignatieff demanded last week that the final report be dismissed, the Conservatives dismissed his request. The Conservative side now says the Auditor General and the Speaker should release the report, but that wouldn’t seem to be possible—the AG’s office having said that its reports cannot be tabled unless Parliament is sitting.

The Star has posted the full list of projects funded by the G8 legacy fund.

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