Reality check: Part 2 - Tony Clement: Red Tape Reduction Expert

This morning, Tony Clement was joined by Maxime ‘lost documents’ Bernier for an announcement about reducing the number of forms one needs to work with government.

What Clement failed to mention was his pioneering pilot project known as the G8 Legacy Fund.

With a simple one page homemade form, Clement led the disbursement of over $50 million in pork-barreling for his riding. He streamlined processes, avoided audits and delivered results to his friends and donors.

The auditor general was so impressed with the lack of red tape that he said this:

“As I indicated in my opening statement, and as the report indicates, no documentation exists in the federal government to indicate how the 32 projects were selected from the 200-and-some that were submitted.” – John Wiersema, Interim Auditor General, Standing Committee on Public Accounts, October 5, 2011

And when asked how cooperative Clement was in handing over documents, he added:

“We did approach the minister's office to request any documentation that was available in the minister's office or in the constituency office to explain how the projects were selected. We received a small amount of documentation, which wasn't directly relevant to the question of the project selection” – John Wiersema, October 5, 2011

Such an efficient approach to the “reduction” of red tape and record keeping lets Tony Clement make claims like:

“It never happened that way. We were not involved in selecting the projects." – Tony Clement, Standing Committee on Public Accounts, November 2, 2011

This is Prime Minister Stephen Harper choice to oversee red tape reduction?