Funding for G8 Projects Went Through Clement's Office

Remember that $50 million in pork projects that almost became an election issue? Yeah, well, Tony Clement was neck deep in it.

The Toronto Star takes a closer look at just how involved Conservative cabinet minister Tony Clement and top-level bureaucrats were in the dispersal of some $50 million for projects intended for the G8 summit in his Ontario riding last year. Among them: All funding requests went directly through Clement's constituency office, and top federal bureaucrats were aware of the projects being doled out, which runs counter to the Attorney General's report that found senior government officials were kept in the dark about the spending. The Star wonders if this means the bureaucrats – including officials from Foreign Affairs and Industry Canada – knowingly took part in a cover up to bury the details of the $50 million (spent on such practical projects as gazebos and bandshells located dozens of kilometres away from the G8 summit site) or if they just didn't know that the money was for glaringly obvious pork projects. Either way, it doesn't exactly lend confidence to the minister or his mandarins, but it's not like Clement's ever going to have to answer why he got to splash money around his riding like a coked-up investment banker in Vegas.