Why did the B.C. Liberal government set up its recycling stewardship program and Multi-Material B.C. outside the jurisdiction of the office of the auditor general and the province’s Financial Administration Act?
Back in the 1980s and ’90s, the game of choice for a dishonest federal or provincial government was to set up a government-funded program with broad motherhood objectives, then flow massive amounts of taxpayer dollars to one or more key advertising agencies that were supposed to produce the necessary information, marketing materials and ad campaigns.
But the real game was corruption involving misdirection and misuse of taxpayer dollars. In the case of the sponsorship program in Quebec, the federal auditor general figured it out with the help of Ernst and Young and a whistleblower.
The auditor reported on the “appalling and unacceptable” situation, then called in the RCMP. The auditor reported in 2004 that as much as $100 million out of $250 million in contracts was awarded to Liberal-friendly ad agencies with little or no work done.
There was a lot of fallout. The presidents of the Business Development Bank, Via Rail and Canada Post were all canned. The ensuing Gomery Commission reported that firms were winning contracts based on donations to federal Liberals with little or no work being done.
The sponsorship program ran between 1996 and 2004. The Gomery Commission cost taxpayers $14 million. Untold amounts of additional taxpayer dollars went into the ensuing court cases. The investigation into the activities of organizer Jacques Corriveau continued until 2013. His trial date has been set for next month.
You think something like this couldn’t happen in British Columbia? Well, it already did. In 1983, the auditor general of British Columbia, Erma Morrison, uncovered inappropriate payments and missing expenditure controls in the Ministry of Tourism.
McKim Advertising had been appointed the agency of record for the ministry. All ad funds of the ministry were funnelled through that agency. Ultimately, Morrison reported to the legislature that weaknesses in internal control and poorly documented payments to McKim were so numerous as to suggest dishonesty on the part of the ministry.
The Vancouver Commercial Crime Squad was called in. Dennis Cocke, MLA for New Westminster, brought the matter to the legislature, citing secret bank accounts, double-billing and a million-dollar cost overrun. The deputy minister of tourism took the fall.
Yes, it can happen in B.C.
Back to my original question. Why did the Liberal government set up MMBC outside the jurisdiction of the office of the auditor general and the Financial Administration Act? Why is the ever-shrinking list of targeted companies being forced to pay fees in the millions of dollars directly to an organization taking the form of a not-for-profit society instead of paying taxes into the Consolidated Revenue Fund? Why did the B.C. Liberal government set everything up this way?
Why did MMBC file a notice of intention to borrow $1.5 million from the Ontario-based Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance exactly one week after the last election? Why aren’t the audited financial statements of MMBC from inception available for scrutiny? How is MMBC going to repay the other monies it intended to borrow from various industry associations in Ontario?
The answer to everything is hiding in plain sight, in a YouTube video by MC Hammer — U Can’t Touch This. I can just imagine the Liberals jumping around to the beat, chanting “U can’t touch this, U can’t touch this,” referring to the oversight responsibilities of the auditor general, the legislature, and therefore you and me.
In my opinion, we will see the entire recycling industry in British Columbia fall under the control of MMBC and CSSA with the B.C. Liberals controlling the situation from behind closed doors through the stewardship regulations.
B.C. businesses are being forced by the Liberal government to pay outside the public accounts of the province to make this possible. And under the MMBC arrangements, no one has the authority to prevent or detect financial misdealings on behalf of the paying companies, the taxpayers, or you and me, the voters.
Not the federal auditor general, not the provincial auditor general, not anyone. Do we know why the government has structured things to place the financial affairs of MMBC outside the scrutiny of the auditor general? No. Should we be concerned? You bet.
In five years, the magnitude of funds that will have flowed through MMBC, say $400 million, will rival the total amount of all funds that flowed through the federal sponsorship program. But unlike that program, U Can’t Touch This.
Wake up people, it’s Hammer Time.
Kelvin L. McCulloch is chief executive officer of Buckerfield’s.
