MacAulay targeted again

OTTAWA (PoliticsWatch updated October 10, 2002 @ 10:30 a.m.) Solicitor-General Lawrence MacAulay is once again the target of attacks, this time opposition parties are accusing him of diverting funds to his riding and awarding a second untendered contract. 

Alliance leader Stephen Harper started off question period asking ethics counsellor Howard Wilson to look at a contract given to Tim Banks, the Liberal Party president of Prince Edward Island. Wilson is currently in P.E.I. to investigate a sole-sourced $140,000 contract given to MacIsaac, Younker, Roche and Solomon, where MacAulay's election agent Everett Roche is a partner. 

The new allegations of wrongdoing surround an untendered contract given to Banks' firm APM Group. The company was paid $120,000 to manage a $4 million renovation of the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien defended the Solicitor-General and said the contract came from a private organization with an independent board, not the federal government.

"But the ethics counsellor is looking into this file," Chrétien said. "But if my information is right...and I am pretty sure that this is an organization that is independent from the government."

MacAulay has defended himself against wrongdoing in the Roche case, saying he followed Treasury Board guidelines by posting the contract on the government's MERX system. 

The Progressive Conservatives jumped on board with their own allegations in question period. MP Bill Casey accused MacAulay of diverting funds from maximum security prisons in Spring Hill, Nova Scotia and Dorchester, New Brunswick.  Casey said the budgets of both penitentiaries were cut significantly while money is going into a new Montague Addictions Research Centre in MacAulay's own riding. 

"It's people in my riding (Cumberland-Colchester) losing their jobs so people in his riding can get jobs," Casey said in an interview with PoliticsWatch. "The facilities in his riding have no prisoners and expanding. And every other place is being told by direct order to cut their budgets."

Casey said he started the investigation and filed an access to information request before the contract scandals started with MacAulay last week. He said he doesn't know how much money has gone into the research centre, but has been told Dorchester Penitentiary had to cut their budget by $1.3 million. 

"He can say they're not connected but the fact of the matter is he manages the money," Casey said. "If he didn't have Montague, Spring Hill and Dorchester wouldn't have cutbacks." 

After question period, Tory leader Joe Clark urged the ethics counsellor to look into all matters concerning MacAulay.

"I think he has something to hide," Clark said. "I very much hope that the ethics counsellor to P.E.I. is designed to conduct the most thorough and wide-ranging investigation." 

The new allegations of wrongdoing come after a controversy-filled for the Solicitor-General. According to a story from the National Post, MacAulay paid his nephew at least $200,000 in the five years he ran his uncle's riding office. Federal rules prohibit Cabinet Ministers from hiring "spouses, parents, children and siblings,'' although it doesn't include nieces or nephews.

As well, MacAulay is facing continuing pressure from being compared to former Defence Minister Art Eggleton, who was fired from Cabinet for giving an untendered contract to an ex-girlfriend. 

Read related PoliticsWatch stories: 
Eggleton defends MacAulay in contract scandals
MacAulay defends contracts
Liberals facing scandals

Read other web related stories:

MacAulay faces new accusations (National Post)
Striking gold in a Minister's backyard (National Post)
MacAulay faces fresh allegations of cronyism  (Globe and Mail)
MacAulay pressed for details of federal contract (National Post)
MacAulay dodges questions on contract (Toronto Star)
MacAulay continues dodging questions about contract to friend's firm (Ottawa Citizen)
MacAulay linked to another contract (CBC)

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