Liberals accused of trying to 'hide their scandals' after scathing auditor reports
Government's responses to scandal 'wouldn't take the scum off rice pudding,' Tory MP says
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OTTAWA — Recent auditor general reports on questionable government spending provided plenty of ammunition for the Conservatives Thursday during question period.
Query after query came from the opposition benches on Auditor General Karen Hogan’s bombshell reports released this week, including Canada’s floundering purchase of 88 new fighter jets to work outsourced to questionably qualified government contractors.
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“The Liberals gave $64 million to GC Strategies, a two-person IT firm that did no actual work and is currently under RCMP investigation,” Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis said during question period.
“The Liberals should not be dodging accountability; they want to hide their scandals from Canadians, but the auditor general report was very clear — this Liberal government ignored the rules and allowed insiders to profit to the tune of $64 million.”
The Conservatives tabled a motion in the House to recover money paid to GC Strategies — responsible for creating the contentious ArriveCan app — within 100 days.
Lewis said the scandal suggests Liberals are showing disdain for Canadians by rewarding the ministers responsible with promotions to other portfolios.
In response, Procurement Minister Joel Lightbound said the government revoked security clearances to GC Strategies, which according to Hogan’s report saw 31 federal agencies award them 106 contracts worth a total of $92.7 million.
Only $64 million of that was paid out.
“We’ve terminated all contracts with GC Strategies, we’ve barred GC Strategies from future contracts with the government of Canada,” Lightbound said.
“We’ve taken legal action against GC Strategies, we’ve referred cases to the RCMP because, Mr. Speaker, we will never tolerate misconduct from our suppliers or their subcontractors.”
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Similar questions came from Tory MPs Bob Zimmer, Dominique Vien, Jamie Schmale and Scot Davidson, who remarked the government’s responses “wouldn’t take the scum off rice pudding” after Lightbound had finished speaking.
“No work was done, the only thing delivered was a cheque to Liberal insiders,” he said.
“Why is it under this Liberal government failure is rewarded and Canadian taxpayers get stuck with the bill?”
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