BEAMSVILLE – Erie-Lincoln MPP Tim Hudak said today that Dalton McGuinty must pay a political price for his months of stonewalling in an attempt to cover up his government’s egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars described by Ontario’s Auditor General.

Tim asked many questions about McGuinty's slush fund in the LegislatureOntario’s Auditor General confirmed yesterday that the Liberals’ “year-end slush fund” was politically directed and had little or no controls or process to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars were being spent properly.
The Auditor General described the slush fund granting process as “among the worst that (I’ve) seen, in terms of almost no controls, process, or accountability.”

Some of the examples highlighted by the Auditor General include:

• A $1-million grant to the Ontario Cricket Association by the McGuinty Government when the Cricket Association only asked for $150,000. The Cricket Association then deposited $500,000 into a GIC because they did not need the money, and used $20,000 in a lavish dinner celebration to thank Dalton McGuinty for the million dollar cheque.

• A $200,000 grant to the Iranian-Canadian Community Centre (ICCC), which had only existed for little more than a year, despite there being "no written request for funding." Furthermore, one of the Board Members of the ICCC is the Liberal Party candidate in Richmond Hill and another was the local Liberal Party riding association president. (A third board member is a friend of Finance Minister Greg Sorbara, and a fourth was once a senior staffer in the office of Health Minister George Smitherman.)

• A $250,000 grant to the Chinese Professional Association of Canada (CPAC) just a few months after 10 CPAC board members attended a fundraiser for the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, Mike Colle (who has since resigned). A CPAC board member also worked in the Minister's office and another was the Treasurer of a Liberal Party riding association.

“Former Minister Colle is simply a scapegoat. The buck stops with the Premier,” Hudak said. “After 100 days of Mr. McGuinty’s denial and dodging over 270 opposition questions in the Legislature, we finally received some answers – if you knew Dalton McGuinty, the Minister or a senior Liberal official, you would be given access to a grant with almost no questions asked.”

Many deserving groups in Niagara and Hamilton did not have access to support from the Ontario Government because the existence of the program was not made public and no application forms existed.

The Auditor General pointed out that the grants that he investigated amount to only a tiny fraction of the total amount of money spent by Dalton McGuinty in year-end spending sprees – a practice that the Auditor has repeatedly raised concerns about.

Dalton McGuinty must come clean and agree to an audit of all $2.7 billion his government has rushed out the door in year end spending