Missing funds for angling and hunting

[John Bacon]

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/10/12/mpp-hunts-how-70m-in-anglers-fees-vanish

 

A provincial fund of $70 million in public money doesn’t just disappear.

One way to find out for sure would be to call in Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk, which is just what a London-area MPP wants to do.

Progressive Conservative Jeff Yurek, who represents Elgin-Middlesex-London, has requested help from Lysyk — the independent watchdog who monitors how taxpayer money is spent, or misspent — to determine where the cash from Ontario hunters and anglers’ licensing fees has gone.

“I’m hoping the auditor general gets back to us in a week or so,” Yurek said Wednesday.

The money was earmarked for use by Ministry of Natural Resources for hunting and angling.

Instead, a local citizens’ group, the Aylmer District Stakeholder Committee, discovered through freedom-of-information requests it had been spent on things such as purchase and sale of a house ($65,000) and psychologists ($12,251).

Yurkek said he “honestly can’t picture” any circumstances where those expenses, paid out of a so-called special purpose account, would qualify as legitimate expenditures.

Yurek also said an FOI request on the subject of local expenditures came back with a response of “no records exist,” which would be a breach of the rules that govern such funds. Receipts must be kept for every withdrawal, Yurek said.

“Basically, I’ve been trying to find how the money in the special purpose account was spent,” he said. The process has taken years.

Yurek expects she will get back to him fairly quickly.

“Just like the Alymer District Stakeholders, we’ve been at this for five years,” Yurek said of the work his staff has done on the file.

“At this point, for us, it’s left in the hands of the proper channels,” said Ken Currah, a spokesperson for the stakeholder committee. Because Currah’s group was only able to get FOI responses for one year, he believes there could potentially be larger sums of moneyinvolved in any final audit.

A spokesperson for the ministry could not be reached Wednesday.

[email protected]

Edited October 13, 2016 by JohnBacon

[Fisherman]

Well what do you expect from this brand of government.

[Old Ironmaker]

I expect better. We can't be the atypical Canuck and just shrug our shoulders and wait for the next election. I know the MPP from London had pressure put on him by the group of Aylmer District Stakeholders as the article states as well as pressure from individual Lake Erie anglers from the Long Point area to do something. Because I read about this info on another site weeks ago and it was suggested to call your MPP. This forum has more than enough members to lobby too. Call your local MPP and ask the same question, where's my 70 million? I did and so can you.

[craigdritchie]

It's a Liberal government. That being the case, money vaporizes into thin air every single day. Why should a fishing fund be exempt?

 

Shall we recall some other examples of where the Ontario Liberals had money disappear without a trace? $70 million is just pocket change compared to things like ...

• e-Health. Established by Dalton McGuinty to put health records into a digital database. More than $1.2 billion spent to this day, and not one electronic record produced yet.
• 'Smart' hydro meters. They said it would cost $285 million to replace existing meters with the new ones. To date, they've spent $1.6 billion and they're not finished.
• OLG scandal - more than $1.3 billion missing, and no idea where the money went.
• Ornge medical helicopters - $1.5 billion in spending still unaccounted for.
• Green Energy Act - $7 billion supply deal signed with Samsung Group to carpet the province with wind turbines, producing electricity no one needs, and which we are required by law to buy even when other sources are cheaper.
• Gas Plant scandal ... another $1.1 billion in tax money disappears without a trace.
• No reduction in our HST and no pay-down of debt in spite of receiving $4.3 billion each year from the feds since McGuinty was premier
• Teacher Contracts. Wynne just this year paid the Ontario teachers union $2.2 million so they could fight the government for a better contract. Say what?

Oh man, I could go on for a long time but I don't think my stomach can take it. Maybe our fishing fund went the same route as CancerCare Ontario. Remember? McGuinty gave $75 million to two consultants for a report on how to improve care of cancer patients in Ontario. No report has been produced yet. No idea where the consultants went. Or, even who they were.

 

Bottom line is, there's no telling where our $70 million fisheries enhancement fund went. Maybe it helped fund the Pride Parade.

 

The news story John bacon quoted is wrong - $70 million in public money does just disappear. It happens every single day here in Ontari-owe.

 

Remember that next time you vote.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Craig_Ritchie