MPs want to hear from Serge Savard  
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch posted 5:40 p.m. October 14, 2004]

Serge Savard hoists the Cup as Canadiens GM in 1986.

OTTAWA — Former Montreal Canadien Serge Savard may be joining his former teammate Ken Dryden on Parliament Hill this fall.  

Members of the Public Accounts committee, which investigated the sponsorship scandal during the previous Parliament, are interested in hearing from Savard after revelations this week that in 1999 someone in Prime Minister Paul Martin's office lobbied for a sponsorship grant for a sports organization Savard chaired. 

The National Post reported Thursday that Savard later hosted a $1000-a-plate fundraiser dinner for Martin's leadership campaign that raised $1 million. 

A document released at the Gomery inquiry earlier this week showed an aide to then public works minister Alfonso Gagliano received a call from an unnamed person in Martin's finance office in 1999. 

"Paul Martin's office telephoned us to find out why Les Internationaux du Sport de Montreal (Savard's group) hasn't had a response to their sponsorship request for $600,000," wrote Joanne Bouvier, an aide to Gagliano. Government records show the group received a $250,000 grant from the program. 

The Prime Minister's Office has denied any connection between the fundraising and the intervention by Martin's office in the grant. 

"Only an idiot would fail to connect the dots that these are integrally linked," said NDP MP Pat Martin. 

"We don't know if there's a quid pro quo, but you'd have to be born on a raft to not see the direct connection here. I have no problem outside the House publicly accusing them of having a connection in those two elements of the same story.

"Serge Savard used to be famous for this move when he was a Montreal Canadien called 'spinarama,'" said the NDP's Martin. "Well this is spinarama of the highest order because they somehow spun around this fundraising project and a massive donation from the sponsorship fund to Serge's initiatives."

Conservative MP Jason Kenney said he is curious to hear from Savard. 

"It's a potential major development showing the direct Martin link and showing the kind of mutual back scratching that characterized the whole scam where fundraisers got sponsorships and they raised money for ministers - in this case Paul Martin - who ended up lobbying on their fundraisers' behalf. 

"This is about five different conflicts of interest, so we are going to pursue that issue quite vigorously."

While there are questions about how much the committee will accomplish with the Gomery inquiry simultaneously holding hearings across town, the chair of the committee in the last Parliament, Conservative MP John Williams, signalled in question period that he wants the committee to go full steam ahead. 

"Will the government provide the 10 million pages of documents to Parliament that it gave to the Gomery commission so we can truly get to the bottom of the sponsorship scandal?" Williams asked Public Works Minister Scott Brison.

"The answer is absolutely yes to the hon. member's question," Brison replied.

The Public Accounts committee will hold its first meeting on Tuesday with the election of a chair.  

Williams said it is obligatory that the committee provides a report on its the hearings it held before the election and it is up to the committee to decide whether to have additional hearings or if they want to move towards a report.

In the minority Parliament, opposition MPs now control the committees and are likely to have no qualms about investigating what is seen as a Liberal scandal. 

Williams said he wouldn't be surprised if Savard appeared before the committee.

"It seems to me that there is some explaining to do here and the only way we can get that answer is to ask him to come before the committee."

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