Posted on 08/15/2007 9:16:02 AM PDT by Clive
John Tory visited Gateway Centre in Mississauga yesterday. It's a non-profit centre that serves immigrant children in a very practical way. It's renovating a basketball court for kids and has arts and drama facilities to keep youngsters off the streets and out of trouble.
The centre sorely needs $100,000 to get the work done.
Sadly, though, they didn't know the province was dishing out largesse like Lady Bountiful. And they don't know the right people. So unlike scores of other organizations with far less worthy projects, they didn't get a government hand-out.
"They didn't know (former citizenship minister) Mike Colle or any of the people involved," Tory said in an interview yesterday.
"When they see the cricket association got a $1 million when they only asked for $150,000, they are not only despondent but also extremely angry," he said. Tory said the Liberals justified the so-called "slush fund" as a way to help new Canadians when, in fact, it passed over more immigrants than it helped.
"I am sure some new Canadians got help but there are an awful lot of others who didn't and who want to know why they got shafted out of even being able to apply for any money and why people got six or seven times what they asked for," he said.
Provincial auditor general Jim McCarter released a report on what's been dubbed "Colle-gate." He concluded that while there was "no evidence" that any organization received a grant because of political ties, the connections were there.
"However, in some cases those ties did exist and, when this is combined with a process lacking openness and most of the normal accountability controls, it can create the perception of favouritism if the organization ends up obtaining a grant," McCarter said in his report.
Much has already been written about the Ontario Cricket Association, which requested $150,000 and received $1 million.
But take a look at some of the other grants. The Iranian-Canadian Community Centre, (ICCC) was only established in 2005. McCarter points out that other grant programs run by the ministry require organizations to operate for at least two years to be eligible.
There was also no written request for the funding -- yet they got $200,000 to build a community centre.
McCarter reports that when it received the grant, the ICCC had several board members, two of whom resigned in March 2007 -- one to run as a Liberal in the Oct. 10 election and the other to become the president of that individual's constituency association.
Similarly, the Chinese Professionals Association of Canada received a grant of $250,000. Until April 2007, the president was the Treasurer of an Ontario Liberal constituency association and 10 of the association's board members were identified as having attended a fundraising event for the Minister of Citizenship in 2006.
And forget cricket. Have you ever heard of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum? It's in St. Mary's, near Stratford. It got a cool half million of your bucks. What has baseball to do with citizenship and immigration? Or are we simply celebrating our close ties to the U.S.?
New Democratic critic Peter Kormos says that just because the auditor couldn't find evidence that political ties resulted in grants being handed out, that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
"To suggest that somehow it was an accident that some groups got money while another didn't is extremely naive," he added.
"He (McCarter) merely indicates that his investigation was unable to disclose those. That's why the question of the nature of the relationship between some of these organizations and the Liberals in government warrants further inquiry," Kormos said.
If vote-buying was indeed the plan, it back-fired. What the Liberals bought themselves with those grants was a heap of trouble on election day.
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Speaking of basketball, whatever happened to the famous clinton/gore ‘midnight basketball’ program?
I am guessing this still receives funding.
Thanks for the ping.
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