QUEEN’S PARK – “We have already seen far too many tax dollars disappear down the hole of untendered contracts and sweetheart deals in the eHealth and other scandals. Dalton McGuinty must order his Liberal campaign team to pay back the tax dollars they received from his caucus services slush fund,” charges Lisa MacLeod, the Ontario Progressive Conservative critic for Revenue and Accountability.
New evidence contained within the Ontario Public Accounts, according to the PCs reveal that “Dalton McGuinty’s habit of handing out Ontario families’ hard earned money to Liberal friends and insiders was not just isolated to the billion dollar eHealth boondoggle, Cancer Care Ontario or his secretive Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs)”.
In a statement issued today the PCs claim that “The Public Accounts confirm Dalton McGuinty is actually using the taxpayer funded Liberal Caucus Services Bureau (LCSB) budget to pay members of his Liberal Party campaign team”.
“This includes Christine McMillan – the Ontario Liberal Party’s Vice-President of communications who ran the Liberal war room during the 2007 campaign – who received $100,000 taxpayer dollars in 2009-10. It also includes Pollara – whose former president, Don Guy, works as Dalton McGuinty’s campaign manager – which received over $401,000 from LCSB in 2009-10. And it includes Arrow Communications Group – whose president Marcel Wieder co-ordinates ads for the Liberal friendly Working Families Coalition – which received $223,023”.
“Rewarding Liberal friends and insiders with cushy untendered contracts is bad enough. Using Ontario families’ hard earned money to pay Dalton McGuinty’s own campaign team is a violation of the public’s trust,” complains MacLeod.
Quick Facts:
- According the Ontario Public Accounts released this week:
- Former Pollara, president, Don Guy, is Dalton McGuinty’s campaign manager. He received $401,900 from Liberal Caucus Services Bureau budget in 2009-10. This is in addition to at least $364,000 from Liberal MPP and government ministry budgets.
- Christine McMillan, Vice-President of Communications for the Ontario Liberal Party received $100,000 from Liberal Caucus Services Bureau in 2009-10.
- Arrow Communications Group, whose president Marcel Wieder is the ad designer for the Liberal friendly Working Families Coalition, received $223,023 from Liberal Caucus Services Bureau in 2009-10.