Slush fund implicates entire government, says MPP Arnott
Demanding Government accountability for the slush fund issue, MPP Ted Arnott made the following statement in the Ontario Legislature on May 8th, 2007:
For weeks now the Legislature has been consumed with Lottogate, and now the McGuinty Liberal Government's slush fund scandal.
As we now know, up to $32 million was handed out to 110 groups without the normal accountability provisions which taxpayers would expect and have every right to demand. In fact, it appears some of the groups didn't even make an application to justify their need. They simply had to establish their Liberal Party credentials and connections to the get the cash, up to a quarter of a million dollars, in some cases.
In his initial defence of his slush fund, the Minister of Citizenship attempted to spread the blame for his Ministry's year-end spending spree to his Cabinet colleagues, and in particular the Minister of Finance.
It's no wonder because day by day we are learning new details of Liberal insiders working in various Ministers' offices receiving these cheques intended to purchase support for the Ontario Liberal Party.
Today's Toronto Star reveals that a former assistant to the Minister of Health, is now a Director of the Iranian-Canadian organization which received $200,000 from the Minister of Citizenship's slush fund. How convenient.
So now it appears that the Minister of Citizenship, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal, the Minister of Culture, and now the Minister of Health, are all implicated in this growing scandal.
With Liberal MPPs growing more nervous by the day, the Minister of Citizenship has had more than 200 opportunities in this House to keep his commitment to release the criteria and explain the process as to how this money was allocated. He has refused to do so, and implicated the entire Government in the scandal. He must resign and call in the Auditor General.
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