The Ontario NDP is considering a fresh complaint to the province’s integrity commissioner after the Progressive Conservative Party directed government ministers to hold a series of fundraisers in order to boost its coffers ahead of a possible early election.
On Monday, Global News revealed that the chair of the Ontario PC Party fund sent an email addressed to “cabinet ministers” in September asking them to ramp up fundraising towards the end of the year.
“We need your help in organizing a minimum of 2 – 5 fundraisers each by the end of the year,” Tony Miele said in the email. “These events can be small breakfast events, lunch events or larger reception style dinner events.”
The premier’s office insisted that the email, which was sent to chiefs of staff in the Ford government, was sent in error and that the party immediately sent a recall notice.
At Queen’s Park, however, the Progressive Conservatives saw their own historic criticism thrown back at them. Quotes from a similar controversy, when the PCs were in opposition, were dug out and read to the government benches.
In 2016, the former Liberal government faced a scandal after cabinet ministers were given specific fundraising goals, leading to claims that the Liberals were raising money off of stakeholders who were also vying for favorable cabinet decisions.
“Everyone remembers the Liberal-era cash-for-assess regime …conservatives had a lot to say about that, at that time,” said NDP MPP Terrence Kernaghan.
Kernaghan then reached into the Queen’s Park archives to ask the Ford government the same questions the PC Party had posed to Liberals in 2016.
“Do they believe that it is appropriate for a minister of the crown to raise large sums of money from stakeholders bidding on projects that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars where (the minister) has the power to give the thumbs up or thumbs down,” Kernaghan asked.
Attorney General Doug Downey denied the allegations, even though the premier’s office confirmed the email.
“We do not have targets, we have not been given targets and we are not following targets,” Downey said.
Downey said it “mistake” the email had ever been sent and that he, himself, had not seen it.
Other ministers, however, appear to have received the memo.
According to the PC Party’s website, several ministers are set to hold fundraising dinners in November asking donors for anywhere between $250 to $1,500 per person.
The NDP said it wants to put the incident on the integrity commissioner’s radar “to make sure he’s aware” and said NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she would follow up to offer a formal submission if the integrity commissioner suggested it was necessary.
Stiles said the email represented a “cash-for-access” scheme.
“As a cabinet minister, they’re not supposed to use your connections and the power that you have as leverage to fundraise,” said Stiles. “It’s basic integrity.”
Neither the Liberals nor the NDP explicitly said they would introduce laws to ban the practice if they formed government.