[LINK] "Tories misled Parliament on G8 spending: Auditor-General"

[rfmcdonald]

Things are developing to the point where I might want the Auditor-General to run the country.

Also, if the Liberals can't make political capital of this, they don't deserve to win.

The opposition calls it explosive: a bombshell draft report by the Auditor-General, complete with charges of pork-barrel largesse, dubious government spending and a “misinformed” Parliament.

The Conservatives call it a dud.

Either way, the early draft of Sheila Fraser's forthcoming report, a chapter of which was shown to The Canadian Press, promises to rattle podiums Tuesday when the televised leaders' debates get underway.

An early draft of the auditor general's investigation into spending for the G8 and G20 summits has been called both explosive and a dud. Canadian Press reporter Joan Bryden explains why.

[. . .]

Ms. Fraser's confidential Jan. 13 draft says the government misinformed Parliament to win approval for a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money on questionable projects in Industry Minister Tony Clement's riding.

And it suggests the process by which the funding was approved may have been illegal.

Conservative candidate John Baird insisted Monday that the final report differs from the draft — most notably in that it doesn't say the government “misinformed” Parliament.

“The report has changed considerably,” said Mr. Baird, who as infrastructure minister would have been privy to subsequent drafts of the report, but not the final version.

Ms. Fraser analyzed the $1-billion cost of last June's G8 summit in Ontario cottage country and subsequent gathering of G20 leaders in downtown Toronto and was to have tabled a final report in Parliament on April 5.

The report was put on ice when Stephen Harper's government was defeated, and now won't be released until sometime after the May 2 election.

The draft says a local “G8 summit liaison and implementation team” — Mr. Clement, the mayor of Huntsville, Ont., 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.

[. . .]

It was common knowledge the Conservatives were “spraying money around like drunken sailors in Tony Clement's riding” in the leadup to the G8 meetings, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said.

“What we didn't know is that they lied to Parliament,” he added. “What we didn't know is that they may have broken the law. This is not me telling you this, this is the auditor general of Canada.”

Mr. Ignatieff urged Mr. Harper to agree to release the report immediately, and to explain to Canadians what he called a “scandalous” abuse of public money and the parliamentary process.