Taxpayers are picking up an enormous tab for lawyers associated with the Gomery Inquiry. The numbers for those targeted by Gomery are small compared with the fees run up by lawyers who worked for his public inquiry into the scandal:
Bernard Roy $1.56-million;Neil Finkelstein $1.16-million;Guy Cournoyer $1.17-million.
An additional $4.1-million in fees was paid to 27 other lawyers. The Public Works Department and Privy Council Office listed their sponsorship-related legal fees at more than $14-million.
Legal bills make up only part of the money spent over the last two years to cure Ottawa's sponsorship hangover. The full operating budget of the Gomery inquiry — including administrative expenses, equipment, rental of office and hearing space, and a host of other items — has been estimated at between $32-million and $35-million.
Various federal departments report another $39-million in associated spending, pushing the total for cleaning up the scandal to over $70-million.
And you thought ADSCAM was a scandal!
2006/03/12
Huge Gomery legal fees scandalous
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2 comments:
That is just a drop in the bucket compared with what the real cost is. Which just goes to support my initial view that the cure was worse than the disease. And Harper’s behaviour does not really show him to be any less expedient when it comes to Quebec and majority governments than the Liberals were. Wonder what would happen if someone actually could find out who contributed to Harpers leadership campaign, since he refuses to provide any information on that. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Obviously Harper is working hard to forge an alliance with Charest and building his image in Quebec with a view to winning even more Quebec seats next time and forging a majority. The Emerson charade has cost him some credibility but unless the Liberals unite behind a capable leader a Conservative majority seems quite possible. None of the current rumoured Liberal candidates seem very compelling to me.
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