According to a report in The Toronto Star, the environment minister’s staff helped a music festival secure the funding from the scandal-ridden federal sponsorship program singled out in the recent Auditor General’s report.
In the report from Ottawa, the newspaper said long-standing federal Liberal Party member Jamie Kelley approached Anderson’s constituency office in 2001 for help with the event.
The office was eager to help, he said.
“They told me of a secret slush fund where they could access money for constituency programs. There was no application form, no process other than to write a letter (to Public Works).”
After writing a four-page letter and following up with phone calls to the Minister’s office, he was assured Anderson had personally taken his file to then public works minister Alfonso Gagliano.
In the latest mea not culpa, Environment Minister David Anderson is denying that there was anything wrong with the transaction. Well, I guess he would, eh?
In other Adscam news, three Crown Corporation heads have been disciplined pending further review – Via Rail President Marc Lefrancois, Canada Post President Andre Ouellet and Michel Vennat, president of the Business Development Bank.
Andrew Coyne has lots of links, and this observation:
“Suspended? “Disciplined”? After the Beaudoin affair, why hasn’t Vennat been charged with something?”