Liberal.ca
Since the Harper government has ignored requests for a detailed accounting of the $101 million given to the OPP for the G8/G20 summits, the Liberal Party passed a motion at Parliament’s spending oversight committee to get the information straight from the OPP.
“It seems like there’s only one reason why the Conservatives would refuse to disclose this information: to protect their candidate in the Vaughan by-election – former OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino – in case the details of his spending prove to be a political liability,” said Liberal MP Frank Valeriote.
Until the motion was passed, the government said it would not release the information until December 1st – two days after the November 29th by-election.
“The government’s lack of cooperation on this leaves us no choice but to go directly to the source and demand, through a parliamentary committee, the detailed reports of how this money was spent,” said Liberal MP Geoff Regan.
The Liberal motion was passed at the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates yesterday, meaning the OPP is required to provide the information by next Tuesday. The motion reads as follows:
The Committee requests that the Ontario Provincial Police provide it with the details of all their costs associated with the G8 and G20 Summits, including for goods, services and overtime salaries, providing for each contract (i) the name of the contractor, (ii) a description of the goods or services provided, (iii) the value of the contract, (iv) how the contract was awarded, (v) whether the cost was associated with the G8, G20 or both; and that the Committee requests that this information be provided in both electronic and paper form within 5 calendar days.
“It is simply unbelievable to us that five months after the summits, this government still does not have details of this spending as they claim,” said Mr. Regan. “We can only conclude that they’re trying to delay this information going public until after the November 29th by-election.”
Julian Fantino is responsible for the OPP’s expenditure of $95 million to provide security for the G8 in Huntsville, and another $6 million for the G20 in Toronto. To justify the $124 million spent by the Toronto Police on the G20, the chair of the Toronto police board blamed Stephen Harper’s last-minute venue change for the explosive costs.
“We are sick and tired of these political games, which is why we tabled this motion. Canadian taxpayers have a right to know how their money was spent during this billion-dollar boondoggle,” concluded Mr. Valeriote.