Oil sands expansion - Who knew what and when
The liblogs must be sounding the retreat after it became apparent their latest flavour of the week backfired on them.I speak of the so-called secret meeting that was not.
Dions response?
''It's for sure that there are always discussions with the Americans on a number of topics, but I didn't receive a specific plan to multiply the use of the oilsands by five, or by two or three. Never as minister of environment did (this type of recommendation) arrive on my desk. It wasn't something that we were looking at."
Is that so? The thing is Dion's response is seemingly similar to another liberal minster when questioned about what he knew.
Don't recall?
Here's a stark reminder.
"Martin went through a detailed explanation of how - as finance minister - his job was to allocate money to the various government departments. Once that was done, he said he wasn't involved in decisions about how the departments spent their budgets.
The responsibility of the minister of finance is to set the financial context in which overall spending can be done. Once the minister of finance does that, which is essentially the presentation of the budget, his responsibility comes to a total end.''
Spending decisions were finalized by Treasury Board, after they were approved by cabinet."
insert mine: Ministers are the cabinet, that includes Martin and Dion
"Martin distanced himself from the sponsorship program. He told the inquiry he had no contact with Jean Pelletier, former prime minister Jean Chretien's chief of staff, about the sponsorship program. Pelletier was the key person in the Prime Ministers Office regarding the sponsorship program.
Neil Finkelstein: What was your working relationship with Jean Pelletier from 1993 onwards?
Paul Martin: It was fine. We didn't work closely together. Whenever we did, the relationship was fine.
NF: You saw him at Tuesday morning Quebec cabinet ministers meetings?
PM: Yes.
NF: Did you have private meetings with him there?
PM: No.
(insert mine: if it was a cabinet meeting then it was a cabinet discussion, all the cabinet)
NF: Private meetings when you were finance minister?
PM: Very few. Mr. Pelletier was in charge, for instance, of making sure that salary guidelines for ministers・staff were respected. I would meet with him on those issues.
NF: How often did you have private meetings with him?
PM: Two to four times a year, maybe.
NF: Did you ever discuss sponsorships with Mr. Pelletier?
PM: No.
NF: Advertising?
PM: Never.
NF: You didn't discuss the budget?
PM: No.
NF: The unity reserve?
PM: Never.
Martin also testified that he had no knowledge of the national unity reserve fund while he was finance minister in 1994 and 1995. He said he was absorbed with slashing the deficit and dealing with an international economic crisis that threatened Canadas economic stability in the mid-1990s.
The unity fund was used to pay for the sponsorship program.
.....
"I'm wondering why it is that you don't have much of a memory of the creation of this fifty million dollar fund for discretionary spending by the prime minister..."
In his testimony earlier in the week, Chretien said Martin "always agreed to set aside $50 million a year for expenditures related to national unity that would be decided upon during the course of the year."
On a totally unrelated topic:
More proof that liberals are socialists that can't make up their mind. Seems this one is having second thoughts about what a great guy Hugo Chavez is.
"There is no doubt remaining in my mind that Chavez's recent actions pose a threat to his country's democratic future, and that he must be stopped."
Now somebody pinch me, did this blogger just advocate for unilateral action against another state?
Isn't that what George Bush has been on about for some time now and been one more reason the lib-left vilifies him for?
posted by gimbol @ 4:36 AM
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