Will we ever be free from scandal in Ottawa? Keeping track is starting to become tough. It is even tougher to know if any are ever properly resolved, or if they just fade away when the next scandal is uncovered, and the taxpayers just lose track of what happened. One of the latest surrounds the $1B ‘Green Slush Fund’.
To refresh our memory this is the fund that Auditor General Karen Hogan recently revealed has 90 conflicts of interest violations, has awarded $50 million to 10 ineligible projects, and has frequently overstated their environmental benefits. This five-year program was created within the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and funded with $1 billion in 2021 to support small- and medium-sized businesses evolve in the clean-tech sector. Shortly after the Auditors’ report, Minister Champagne transferred the program to the National Research Council of Canada and appeared to hope we wouldn’t notice. The initial reaction was to consider axing the program, but it appears it may just be suspended while they investigate the findings.
The report also raised questions about a conflict-of-interest issue when the chair of the board made the decision to grant additional funds of $40M to companies that had already concluded their financing agreements with the Department to help them survive the COVID-19 pandemic. To complicate issues further, it also resulted in additional funding of $217,000 to a company which the Chair herself operates. She did not view it as her company having received preferential treatment as it saved the investment the fund had made and the associated jobs. But the questions still remain, and the opposition parties want to know more, and so should we. The chair and president and CEO have since resigned.
So far, not unlike the Arrive Canada scandal, the government has refused to produce any documents on the ‘Green Slush Fund’ to the opposition parties regardless of urging by Speaker Fergus to address the problem so parliament can move on. The only good thing for us taxpayers is while these scandals keep evolving and linger on, it also puts on hold the government’s plan to change the income tax act to implement capital gains tax changes.
But the list goes on! At the same time as people are concerned about the unsettled scandals Prime Minister Trudeau’s recent appointment of Marc Carney as his key economic advisor is in contention as a conflict of interest is lurking. This is due to his position as chair of Brookfield Asset Management while also being in talks with Canada Pension and others to create a $50B fund of domestic assets. The idea behind the fund would include pension and federal government money to invest in Canadian equities. It’s not clear at the moment if the plan will even proceed, however, I am a bit nervous on this one and surprised it was even proposed Firstly, because Canada Pension Investments in their ads claim to operate separate from the government and from their influence. And secondly, because what Canada Pension does with people’s pension money is a touchy subject.
