This guy said that "Every penny has been accounted for!" Minister John Baird is proud of his accomplishments, that is he doled out billions during his time as Minister in charge of the Infrastructure programme – the Canada Action Plan. You may have seen some of the projects because, although they are supposed to be taken down, the big signs that were paid for by the CAP proudly proclaim the holes that money was shoveled into.
Cobourg received just over eighteen million (from the Feds and Province) dollars to help build its new Community Centre located on D'Arcy St and the rebuilding of the street leading to it. But try and get the information that shows where the money went to and you are up against a wall of paperwork, intransigence, municipal indifference and private sector secrecy. So has every penny been accounted for? Yes and No. The Town of Cobourg was the applicant for the money and as such was the main paymaster. They, the Town, submitted bills to Mr Baird's office for reimbursement for the money paid to the prime contractor – Giffels Corporation. The invoices to the Town, from Giffels Corp., detailed the reasons for payment, i.e. 100% completion of item A, 75% completion of item B and so on. At no time on any of the invoices was the Town able to identify the names of the sub-contractors used by Giffels Corporation, because they were never listed. According to Stephen Peacock, the Town's CAO, that information may not be available to the Town because of corporate secrecy arrangements, and they haven't asked. "Giffels would not tell anybody how much they paid the subs because it may give away their competitive edge." So much for following the money trail. It stops in the office of the Director of Finance for the Town of Cobourg – Mr Ian Davey. However a list of the sub-contractors is on its way to the BR, but that will only show how many local people worked on the job, another issue that will be dealt with later.
But back to the issue of accounting for every penny. Mr Peacock is convinced that everything was above board because he said that the Town had compliance teams working with Giffels to check the trades and materials going into the project. "These teams monitored all phases of construction for quality and industry standards measured against construction norms, For instance these teams knew what the installation should have cost and they watched to see if we got what we paid for. We only paid the main contractors' bills we do not know what they paid their subs." he told the BR. When Mr Davey, the Director of Finance for the Town, spoke to the BR he told us about the invoicing arrangements and when asked if, as custodian of the public money, he was worried about financial shenanigans further down the money chain (this was asked because the Toronto Star had uncovered a minor skimming scandal in a municipality they were tracking) his answer to the administration of public funds, that the Town was responsible for, was revealing. "We did our due diligence by getting quotes and then holding the contractor to that price." So much for being able to account for everyone of the dollars that flowed through the Town's accounts.
So there you have it folks Mr Baird, unless he sends in his audit teams to follow each and every invoice that went to Giffels Corporation, will never know where every penny went. All he knows, at the moment is that Cobourg received $18.26 million dollars and Cobourg paid $27.4 million dollars to Giffels Corporation. Where it went from there is Giffels's secret. So as usual Mr Baird is winging it and just because he said it we should believe him. Well Thank you Mr Baird all we know is that we have a shiny building that cost $27.4 million, and nothing else. But because the Town believes it got what it paid that should be enough to stop nosey taxpayers from asking enquiring questions.
Municipality and Provincial government should be pressured not make any capital expenditures on infrastructure or plant equipment coming from Caterpiller until this LOCKOUT is settled. So all you Council watchers out there should be looking at the upcoming capital budgets for such purchases. Every Council in the County should be asked to sign on to a moratoriam on purchasing Caterpiller products and each Council should be told by activists and others who are offended by Caterpillaer not to even think about spendiing one bloody red cent with such a Company until they change their policies.
who said what