Well, Mary Ng is gone — and so is the $130 million in taxpayer dollars the former Liberal federal trade minister allocated to support women’s business start-ups and generate jobs … that never materialized.Ng didn’t seek re-election in the Markham-Thornhill riding, but she did hang around long enough — a little past the required six years — to collect her handsome MP pension and trot off into the sunset. Well-earned?Not when $130 million was spent under her watch with no start-ups, no new jobs to show for it.But that’s not what Ng told us..Federal audit finds no jobs or startups from $130 million fund .On more than one occasion Ng actually said the Women Entrepreneurship Fund (WEF) that was established in 2018 was a smashing success. She had the audacity to stand in the House of Commons and proclaim that hundreds of women started new businesses thanks to the Liberal created fund. Hundreds!"The Women Entrepreneurship Strategy in Canada is working," she told the Commons in 2023. "Our ecosystem is helping Canadian entrepreneurs grow ... The Fund is working for women entrepreneurs and businesses. It has helped 500 women start new businesses."Not so, said auditors who just revealed that they couldn’t find evidence of any start-ups or job creation. None. Zip. Even with the federal Liberal cabal’s talent for creative mathematics, particularly during for prime minister Justin Trudeau’s time, there’s a honking huge gap between 500 and none."No new businesses were funded," revealed a Department of Industry Report, according to Blacklock's Reporter. "Fund recipients reported using funds for startups even though not funded for this purpose.".The Fund paid grants of up to $100,000 to 322 small and medium sized businesses owned and operated by women. Auditors found every last one of them was already operating before receiving funding. If only 322 existing businesses cashed the taxpayer cheques, how did Ng come up with 500 non-existent new ones?Ng will never be held accountable or have to have to explain how she arrived at that figure. Did she say that as an arrogant Liberal because it sounded like a good number to toss out? Did employees in her department feed her bad information? If so, are any of them still around to give taxpayers answers? And why are they still around?Don’t hold your breath. We’ve seen time and again, with MPs still in place and MPs like Ng gone, accountability simply isn’t the Liberal way. It is so beneath them..EYRE: ‘Lawfare’: How a weaponized Charter of Rights is preventing governments from governing.But where were the alleged watchdog Conservatives? There was plenty of time from 2018 to the present for them to do due diligence, or at least poke around a little to see if hundreds of Canadian women did in fact start up new businesses, compliments of millions from taxpayers through this subsidy.And if they should be so inclined, they might take a peek at another multi-million-dollar Ng imitative. Under then minister Ng, the Ministry of Small Business and Export Promotion created a $221-million Black Entrepreneurship Program to support black entrepreneurs and business owners. How did that work out? Did hundreds of new businesses evolve from that too?And would this be the same Mary Ng cited by the ethics commissioner in 2022 for failing to recuse herself from awarding two government media training contracts worth about $22,000 to her bestie’s public relations firm? It would.She apologized. That’s it..Surely that self-proclaimed he-feminist champ Trudeau would be downright appalled to know that his government didn’t actually help women launch new businesses like Ng blew hot air saying it did. At the time he proclaimed that the subsidy was essential, noting that "full and equal participation of women in the economy is essential to Canada’s competitiveness."Well, he too has trotted off into the sunset with a fat pension and is now probably too busy cavorting with the irritating and creepy Katy Perry — whose career is sliding downhill faster than his did — to concern himself with the affairs of Canadian women he allegedly cherished so.The auditors found that less than half of the recipients said they used money to create new jobs. But there was "no measurable job creation.".AUBUT: From apathy to agency, rebuilding Canada’s democracy ."Performance data were lacking for the Women Entrepreneurship Fund due to COVID-19," auditors wrote.Although it has been a handy excuse for the Liberals, COVID just can’t be blamed for every misspent million or billion. The report concluded that program managers conducted weak oversight and that common performance targets were never set."Insufficient and inconsistent data was collected to fully demonstrate progress towards the medium term outcomes," it declared. "The goals of the Women Entrepreneurship Fund were to support women entrepreneurs to ‘start, maintain and grow their businesses' ... Despite this, disbursements from the Fund did not go to new businesses for start-up."The auditors found that numerous grant recipients falsely claimed they were start-ups, noting that "it is possible this was due to a lack of clarity in the reporting definitions.".Is it possible or did they actually fib? Do they just get way with it? And who exactly are they? If they fibbed shouldn’t they be made to pay taxpayers back?"It was difficult for funding recipients to provide impact data while they were being impacted by the pandemic and some were going out of business," wrote auditors. “Furthermore, even if comprehensive and consistent data were available it would be difficult to interpret reliably.”The audit called Lessons Learned concluded that program mangers did not take enough steps to protect taxpayers and ensure value for their money..CARPAY: Neither freedom nor democracy is destined to live forever."Common targets for the outcomes were not available for the analysis," it added. "These would have been useful."Well, there we have it. Misleading information or outright fibs told. Poor management. No oversight. A whopping $130 million later and nary a new business created. No new jobs. No accountability.The best it seems that we’ll get is a report on lessons learned — as we keep Ng comfy with a nice pension.
