Auditor General says Tories misinformed Parliament on G8 fund

OTTAWA – One chapter of a scathing draft of the Auditor General’s report on G8 spending was leaked to the media, Monday, and suggests the Harper Conservatives mislead parliament to win funding and may have broken the law.

However, Auditor General Sheila Fraser as asking that no conclusion be drawn until the official report is released when parliament is back in session.

The leaked draft accuses the government of misinforming Parliament to win approval of a $50-million fund for spending in Industry Minister Tony Clement’s riding.

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

The draft claims Industry Minister Tony Clement allowed the mayor of Huntsville and the manager of the Deerhurst Resort to make decisions on what did and did not receive funding – which may be illegal. It adds cash may have gone to items like public toilets which were 20 kilometres away from the summit site.

The Conservatives themselves want the Auditor General to release the final version of the report before the televised English language leaders’ debate on Tuesday.

Tory spokesman Ryan Sparrow said the draft report does not reflect the final report, which was shelved until after the May 2 election.

Meanwhile, Conservative Cabinet Minister John Baird said the final report would clear the Conservatives of any wrongdoing.

“It’s a draft report from several months ago, it’s not uncommon that such reports go into many drafts and can be changed, on some occasions, quite dramatically,” Baird said. “The phrase ‘Parliament was misinformed’ is not contained in the next draft of the report, because in fact, that is not what happened.”

Sparrow said the government is prepared to facilitate the final reports’ release, which he said would also require the consent of the Speaker.

News of the report landed like a bombshell on the federal campaign trail.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff echoed the call for the reports’ release and accused the Conservatives of showing contempt for Parliament and for Canadians.

“You can’t have a minister’s cronies spending public money, it’s just utterly unacceptable,” said Ignatieff.

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton called the Harper government full of secrets, and called for a public inquiry into spending for the G8 summit.

“It just shows that the priorities of this government continue to be wrong, they put their own political interests and buddies ahead of the interest of Canadian families and small businesses,” Layton said.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe also called for the report to be released before Tuesday night’s English leaders’ debate.

Fraser said that the final report will not be released early, nor will there be any comment made on it, because doing so would be illegal under the Auditor General Act.