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Business: Canadian fi rm i4i wins a patent battle with Microsoft [9]

OTTAWA (Canadian Press)

Same verdict, softer words.The auditor general has delivered a stinging

rebuke to the Harper government, saying Conserva-tives kept Parliament in the dark about a $50-million G8 fund that sprayed money on dubious projects in a cabinet minister’s riding. The fi nal report on the G8 legacy infrastructure fund concludes the government “did not clearly or transparently” identify how the money was going to be spent when it sought parlia-mentary approval for the funding.

Moreover, the report criticizes the unprecedented lack of documentation to explain how and why 32 infrastructure projects in Ontario’s Parry Sound-Muskoka region were selected to receive the govern-

ment largesse.It concludes that public ser-

vants had no input into the selec-tion process; that projects were approved by John Baird, then infrastructure minister, strictly on the advice of Treasury Board President Tony Clement, whose cottage country riding hosted the G8 leaders’ summit.

“It is very unusual and trou-bling,” interim auditor general John Wiersema said yesterday after tabling the report, which

was prepared under his predecessor Sheila Fraser.“There is no paper trail behind the selection of

the 32 projects. I personally in my career in audit-ing have not encountered a situation like that where there is absolutely no paper trail behind this.”

Responding on behalf of the government, Baird accepted the auditor general’s criticism of what he labelled “administrative defi ciencies.” But he insisted

there was no attempt to deliberately mislead Parliament.The fi nal report does not contain the infl amma-

tory language used in a January draft, which baldly asserted the government had “misinformed” Parlia-ment about the G8 legacy fund and suggested the opaque process for approving the funding might actually have been illegal.

The report details how, in November 2009, the gov-ernment tabled supplementary estimates in which it

asked Parliament to approve $83 million for a border infrastructure fund aimed at reducing congestion at border crossings. Parliament was not told that $50 million of the fund was to be devoted to infra-structure projects hundreds of kilometres from the Canada-U.S. border – in Clement’s riding.

Opposition MPs noted that Clement’s job in the new Parliament is to slash $4 billion worth of annual “fat” from government spending.

AG SLAMS TORY G8 SPENDING SECRECY

“I personally in my career in auditing have not encountered a situation like that where there is absolutely no paper trail behind this.”– Interim auditor general John Wiersema

CANADIAN PRESS

Treasury Board President Tony Clement listens to a question during a news conference yesterday in Ottawa.

World |A Chicago court fi nds a Canadian businessman guilty on two terror charges.[5]

U.S. |Mitt Romney faces a GOP backlash due to his belief in climate change.[6]

Province |A new poll suggests support for the HST is growing in B.C.[3]

Hockey | Alain Vigneault says Roberto Luongo will start in net for the Canucks in Game 5. [10]

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