Again the ethnic, now called diverse, are being picked on. Why? Because the Honourable Mike Colle, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration gave a measly $32 million dollars to 100 ethnic and cultural groups. For this the Minister Colle had to resign in shame.
Auditor General Jim McCarter, who revealed his report two weeks ago, said, "it was the worst I have ever seen, with virtually no controls." Here the Auditor General is criticizing a minister who simply trusted the people who he had, to work within the system, keeping from tying them up in red tape.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said, "the grants program will be cancelled and future support for capital projects by ethnic and cultural groups would have to follow stringent criteria as any other infrastructure project." Now these poor ethnic and cultural groups will need to find someone professional to decipher those "stringent controls".
"I want to apologize to the people of Ontario," said Premier McGuinty. Apologize for what? That Minister Colle gave money to the ethnic community without a ton of paperwork?
"Many organizations received grants simply because the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration or his staff had some knowledge of their needs, or because a member of the organization had a discussion with, or had made a verbal request to the Minister or his staff," said McCarter. Still the same thing: "paper, paper and more paper". Those bureaucrats, and their need for more paper.
In 2006 the Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration raised red flags about "sketchy information". Minister Colle fell victim to a true bureaucrat, sketchy information my foot.
There were only three recipients out of the hundred who had Liberal connections. The Canadian Cricket Association who asked for $150,000 but instead received $1miillion. What a generous minister, who calculated that there were many more cricket players than they had estimated and gave them more. The association put half a million into three yearlong term Government Investment Certificates (GIC).
The recently formed Iranian-Canadian Association also received $200,000 and immediately put it into a GIC.
Then there was the Chinese Professional Association of Canada, which received $250,000 in March 2007 after they had received $25,000. In December 2006. The Association has been accused in a recent issue of “The Epoch Times” of being an active and vocal supporter of Communist China.
The good, now former minister Mike Colle is without a portfolio, because he gave ethnic and cultural groups some money. Colle will nevertheless apparently be a candidate for the Liberals in the upcoming fall election.
