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TAX MONEY STILL TOSSED AROUND WITH ABANDON

While the government bills are held up by the opposition in the House of Commons (see article “A Federal Election Around the Corner”), there are, nonetheless, actions that the Conservative government can take that do not require opposition approval, and will certainly be of great benefit to taxpayers. Some of the on-going abuses of taxpayers’ money are:

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

CIDA was established in 1968 on the personal whim of Prime Minister Trudeau by Cabinet Decree (Order-in-Council). CIDA’s purpose was to distribute Canadian foreign aid. There was no legislation, however, to limit or control CIDA’s activities, the agency is not accountable to Parliament, and it reports only to the Minister of International Cooperation.

As a result, CIDA, with a $4 billion annual appropriation, has had a very questionable history. It has advocated for abortion, population control, and feminism in Third World countries and has also been used as a slush fund for the Liberal party to receive funds from corporations: upon making sizable donations to the Liberal party, such companies were awarded generous contracts by CIDA to operate overseas. (See REALity Sept/Oct 1994, p. 7 & 8, March/April 1998 p. 11, Nov./Dec. 2001 p. 10).

In addition, over the years, CIDA has expended billions of taxpayer dollars on many useless projects, where the law of unintended consequences has invariably predominated. For example, CIDA funded a bakery in Tanzania to bake bread, but there were no customers to buy any since it was foreign to the diet of the local residents! A businessman in Thailand in 1994 was funded by CIDA to build a garment factory. The businessman paid his female workers only a minuscule wage, much lower than they would have received in Bangkok, and the businessman ended up a very wealthy and happy man.

It is not that attempts have not been made over the years to control CIDA. Auditors General have repeatedly expressed frustration over CIDA’s free-wheeling ways, and House of Commons Committees have recounted the many administrative problems at CIDA and its lack of accountability. For example, the agency has 1300 employees. All but 125 reside comfortably in the Ottawa-Hull region, even though CIDA is involved with 115 countries overseas. Despite criticisms, CIDA has gone blithely on its way, doing whatever it wants, whenever it wants with our money.

In 2007, the Senate released a report on CIDA called “Forty Years of Failure”, which again savaged the agency. Fortunately, Prime Minister Harper is aware of this report and knows that CIDA is an agency wildly out of control. According to newspaper reports, Mr. Harper is now hard at work trying to reform CIDA. It is expected that the Conservative government will put in place new policies for CIDA which will emphasize economic development, including technical assistance and training and the improvement of agricultural productivity. This will be a worthy change in policy, if implemented.

Until these new policies are put in place, however, CIDA continues with business as usual. This is apparently what has occurred since the Conservative Minister of International Cooperation, Josée Verner became the Minister and acquired responsibility for CIDA.

Conservative Minister Josée Verner

Quebec M.P. Josée Verner (Louis-Saint-Laurent) was appointed the Minister of International Cooperation by Prime Minister Harper in February 2006. She held this position until August 2007, when she became the Minister of Heritage, trading places with Bev Oda (Durham).

Ms. Verner’s Background

Ms. Verner, at age 49, has had a very interesting career. She spent 20 years in the communications field, and, at one time, worked for former Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa. She was unsuccessful in her bid for the Conservatives in the 2004 federal election. Subsequent to that election, Ms. Verner became a member of Stephen Harper’s staff as a Quebec advisor.

Ms. Verner is a charming, attractive woman. Behind her Gallic charm and femininity, however, lies a hard-core pro-abortion feminist. At the National Conservative Convention in Montreal in February, 2005, Ms. Verner spoke stridently against the resolution to protect the unborn child, declaring that a women’s right to abortion must never be taken away. Her remarks were met with an organized screaming ovation from the Quebec delegation which she led.

Ms. Verner has also recently run into some personal financial problems. In an on-going court case in Quebec City, her husband, Marc Lacroix, who is the owner of a Quebec City advertising firm in which Ms. Verner also has a financial interest, now held in trust, is being sued by one of his shareholders. The latter claims that Mr. Lacroix defrauded him by placing Ms. Verner on the company payroll for 11 years, paying her $30,000 per year for supposed services, even though Ms. Verner never held a job in the firm, never did any work there, and her name never appeared on the company’s organizational chart. She also never participated in social or training activities for the agency. In other words, the shareholder is alleging that placing Ms. Verner on the payroll was part of a deliberate scheme to defraud the minority shareholder.

Ms. Verner has also been in trouble in that her husband’s advertising firm created ads for a Quebec City radio station which opposed the 400th Anniversary celebrations of Quebec. Ironically, Ms. Verner is responsible for these celebrations as the current Minister of Heritage.

The 400th Anniversary Committee for the Founding of Quebec has experienced serious organizational problems, in that four presidents have resigned since its inception in 2001 ­ the latest resignation occurring in January. The Committee has received $85 million from three levels of government, including $40 million from the federal government. Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon has stated recently in the House of Commons that this sum may be increased to $100 million. This information was provided when Mr. Cannon was defending Ms. Verner from Liberal and NDP criticism over the botched Quebec celebrations.

Further, there are reports of conflict of interest and unclear rules for awarding contracts by the Committee organizing the celebrations and for which Ms. Verner is responsible.

Ms. Verner says she is optimistic that the Committee will get back on track, and that she will be playing close attention to the Committee’s efforts. This is not much comfort.

Josée Verner’s Generosity to Left Wing Groups

While Ms. Verner was serving as the Minister of International Co-Operation, responsible for CIDA, one of the largest promoters of abortion internationally, International Planned Parenthood (“IPP”) had its contributions doubled.

In the fiscal year 2005-2006, under the former Liberal government, CIDA gave IPP $9 million. In the fiscal year 2006 ­ 2007, under the management of Ms. Verner, the IPP was the happy recipient of $18 million. The purpose listed for this grant was “Sexual and Reproductive Health”, which means abortion and population control.

In addition, the UN agency, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which U.S. President George Bush refused to fund for six years in a row, on the grounds that it cooperates with China’s one child policy of forced abortions and sterilizations, was given a Canadian grant under Ms. Verner of $44 million. The purpose of this grant was listed as “institutional support”. The annual grant to UNFPA under the Liberals, although initially $13 million, was raised, in 2005, to $30 million annually in order to offset President Bush’s refusal to fund the agency. Ms. Verner subsequently raised this grant extensively. (See: www.taxpayer.com/pdf/Top100.pdf)

Obviously, Ms. Verner is very kind to her ideological friends.

Ms. Verner as Minister of Heritage

On August 14, 2007, Ms. Verner became the Minister of Heritage with responsibility for the Status of Women. In less than a year in this portfolio, she has already left a large footprint.

In September 2006, the Conservative government changed the policies of the Status of Women in order to cease funding for advocacy (lobbying) and “research” by feminist groups. Since her appointment, Ms. Verner has been dutifully publicly affirming her government’s policy on funding practices. We have reason to wonder, however, about Ms. Verner’s actual actions in this regard. Our incredulity is based on the fact, that in December, a few days after Parliament recessed for Christmas (so that no questions could be raised in Parliament), Ms. Verner announced a grant from the Status of Women of $1.05 million over three years, to establish, in collaboration with Quebec Minister for the Status of Women (which will contribute $600,000), a project called the “Centre for Development of Women in Governance”. Its stated purpose is to prepare women to take on key decision-making roles. According to Ms. Verner, the Center is to “[ensure] they [women] have the skills, resources and supports they need to fully engage in the democratic process… we are helping to promote women’s full participation in the economic, social and cultural life of the country”.

Make that “political” life of the country! This conclusion is based on the fact that this project was initiated by the Quebec feminist organization called “Women’s Political Equality (Groupe Femmes, Politique et Démocratie)” whose objective is to push for more female political candidates, especially by way of female quotas. This organization is the same outfit about which REAL Women complained when the group’s material was included on Election Canada’s website during the January 2006 federal election campaign (see REALity March/April 2007,). The message in this material was clear ­ vote for and promote female candidates only. The material contained the usual feminist diatribes and myths. It should never have been placed on the supposedly “neutral” Election Canada website, as it was highly inappropriate for a feminist, political group and its ideology to be promoted there.

This is the same group that has now received a huge grant from the Status of Women to help “women” become politically active: make that “feminist” women politically active! At the Canadian taxpayers’ expense. REAL Women is taking a careful look at Status of Women funding under Ms. Verner. We will let you know in a future issue of REALity the results of our review.

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