OTTAWA — Two months after telling MPs that the RCMP had not found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing at the so-called “green slush fund,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme now says there are “ongoing investigations” into the embattled fund.
Duheme made the comment to reporters Thursday after National Post asked if the RCMP had concerns about receiving documents on Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) through an order from the House of Commons.
“The investigation is ongoing, so I’ll limit my comments to that… There are investigations ongoing,” Duheme said, noting that he and deputy commissioner Mike Flynn had previously confirmed that to a Parliamentary committee.
National Post was unable to find any committee transcript going back to the spring in which either Duheme or Flynn confirmed the police force had investigations related to the embattled clean-tech fund.
Duheme did not specify who or what the RCMP was investigating in relation to SDTC, which the government decided to shut down in June following a scathing audit by Auditor General Karen Hogan.
Hogan’s report found “significant lapses” in the $1 billion fund’s governance and handling of public funds. For example, she discovered 90 decisions in which SDTC violated its conflict-of-interest policies.
She also noted that one out of six projects funded by SDTC (worth a total of $59 million) she audited weren’t eligible and, in some cases, didn’t even support the development of a new green technology.
Duheme’s revelation of ongoing investigations into SDTC was all the more surprising considering that in a July 25 letter, he wrote that the RCMP had reviewed government and auditor general reports on SDCT and hadn’t spotted any criminal behaviour.
“The RCMP has concluded that the available reports do not identify any criminal offences or evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this time, whether in relation to any specific individual or organization,” Duheme wrote to House of Commons Law Clerk Michel Bédard.
He added that Auditor General Karen Hogan has the power to advise the RCMP if she finds any evidence of criminality during an audit.
“To date, the RCMP has not received any referral from the Auditor General or her office in relation to the SDTC matter,” Duheme’s letter reads.
Drama regarding access to SDTC documents is also threatening to bog down the House of Commons indefinitely.
On Sept. 27, House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled that the government appeared to have violated the vast powers of the Commons when it failed to surrender all unredacted records on SDTC so they could be provided to the RCMP, as ordered by MPs on June 10.
“The House has clearly ordered the production of certain documents, and that order has clearly not been fully complied with,” Fergus said. Thus, he added that “cannot come to any other conclusion but to find that a prima facie question of privilege has been established.”
Since then, MPs have debated what to do next, with Conservatives arguing that the government should relent to the order and fork over all records. The NDP and Bloc Québécois support the suggestion that the issue be studied in a Commons committee.
The Liberals have argued that the order is an unacceptable blurring of the lines between the legislative and judicial and a potential violation of Canadians’ Charter rights.
Since debates over parliamentarians’ privilege supersede virtually any other issue in the House of Commons, Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said in an interview that the House will be “ground to a halt” for the foreseeable future.
“We want the original production order respected,” Scheer said.
“Unfortunately, the government has refused. And so, we want the documents handed over. They want to bury this in committee. They want this to be punted down and spend months out of the main focus of Parliament,” he added.
Government House Leader Karina Gould accused the Conservatives of “trying to muck up Parliament” with the ongoing debate. She reiterated her charge that that the June 10 motion was an abuse of Parliament’s power.
Scheer said he disagrees with the Liberals’ assertion that the motion to provide documents to the RCMP is akin to directing the police because the order does not tell the RCMP what to do with the records.
But in a July 25 letter to Bédard, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said he feared that using documents obtained by force via the motion could be a potential violation of a suspect’s Charter rights.
“It is therefore highly unlikely that any information obtained by the RCMP under the Motion where privacy interests exist could be used to support a criminal prosecution or further a criminal investigation,” he wrote.
In a statement Thursday, the RCMP confirmed that it had received a first batch of documents from Bédard in August but wouldn’t say what it had done with them.
“Given the ongoing status of its review of the matter, the RCMP is not in a position to provide additional details pertaining to the documents in question,” reads the unattributed statement.
“The RCMP will continuously assess information and documents that may give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is important to ensuring that all applicable legal standards are upheld during this review.”
In a separate letter dated June 10, Auditor General Karen Hogan also cried foul against the motion, arguing that it could compromise her office’s independence.
She added that it is “also likely to discourage departments, agencies, and Crown corporations from providing me free and timely access to the information required for my audits going forward.”
[email protected]
National Post
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.