The Commons Ethics committee on Wednesday night decided to call Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne for questioning. They want to investigate suspected “green-washing” involving federal subsidies.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, by a vote of 7 to 4, the committee rejected a request from the Conservatives to see all the records about Sustainable Development Technology Canada.“There is a basic question of trust here,” said Conservative MP Damien Kurek (Battle River-Crowfoot, AB). “Certainly, I hear from Canadians on a daily basis that there is not trust in the government and as a result, I think this committee needs to have the ability to ask for those documents.”“It is concerning we would not permit the committee to take a look,” said Kurek. Cabinet had “a track record of covering up, hiding, not producing documents when asked, hiding behind things like cabinet confidences.”On October 4, Sustainable Development Technology had its federal funding frozen. This happened because a whistleblower reported that board members gave their friends special deals.A department of Industry Fact Finding Exercise Report said “individuals in conflict did not recuse themselves” in distributing $38.4 million subsidies to environmental technology companies.The report on September 26 said that some upper management were involved in “inside dealings” after whistleblower complaints.In 2001, the government created Sustainable Development Technology. Its job was to issue grants, up to $100,000, for green technology research.Fact Finding said the agency awarded grants to companies subsequently found in breach of their agreements and that funding appeared to be approved by prior arrangement of board members. Minutes of board meetings showed “unanimous approvals with no evidence of disagreements, challenge or vote mix,” said the report.On Wednesday night, the Ethics committee decided to call Minister Champagne for questioning.“The country is watching,” said Conservative MP Michael Barrett (Leeds-Grenville, ON), sponsor of the motion to investigate the agency. “I think that’s incredibly important for our democratic institutions.”However, a majority of Liberal, New Democrat and Bloc Quebecois MPs on the committee rejected the demand that it “order the government to produce all documents related to this program including emails, briefing notes, text messages, contracts, funding agreements, memoranda of understanding and any other document the government has related to the program.”“I don’t think we need to do the job,” said Liberal MP Mona Fortier (Ottawa-Vanier, ON). NDP MP Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, ON) said he feared the records search could see MPs “talking about documents in the thousands or tens of thousands.”
