The office of federal auditor general Sheila Fraser will consider a request from the House of Commons agriculture committee to investigate what critics call undemocratic tactics by the federal Conservative government during the barley plebiscite.
A decision on whether to conduct a full-blown audit similar to the recent damning report on the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program may not come before the government removes the barley single desk Aug. 1.
“Whenever we get a request from a parliamentary committee, we give it very serious consideration,” said Margot Booth, manager of media relations for the office of the auditor general.
Read Also
Stacking Canada up on gene editing livestock
Canada may want to gauge how Argentina and other countries have approached gene editing in livestock and what that has meant for local innovation.
However, a parliamentary request does not bring an automatic investigation. The seriousness of the issue, the feasibility and the office resources required are considered before a final decision is made, she said.
In this case, the request for an investigation of government conduct during the barley campaign came from a divided agriculture committee.
The opposition majority combined June 5 to approve a motion from New Democrat agriculture critic Alex Atamanenko that Fraser be told the committee supports “a thorough investigation into the government’s conduct and spending by the Department of Agriculture and Agri-food throughout the recent Canadian Wheat Board barley marketing plebiscite.”
Conservatives on the committee opposed the motion and filed a minority dissent several days later.
At times, debate on the motion became personal.
Liberal Wayne Easter tried to expand the request to include an auditor general investigation of the role played by the prime minister’s office, the minister’s political office and parliamentary secretary David Anderson.
He said that’s where the “hidden spending” probably happened, rather than through the agriculture department.
Anderson suggested the investigation be broadened to include the pro-board activities and spending by the CWB and the NDP governments of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
And he took offence at Easter’s attack on him.
“Mr. Easter on a couple of occasions has made fantasy allegations and if he’s going to be making them, I’d like him to back them up with some evidence,” said the Saskatchewan MP. “If he’s going to be slandering somebody, he needs to come forward with some specific evidence.”
In the end, both attempts to broaden the investigation request were dropped when it appeared Conservatives could delay a vote through a filibuster.
