(Queen’s Park) - MPP Garfield Dunlop stood up in the house today and drew attention to the Liberal waste of $330,000 with the replacement of former federal Liberal
Cabinet Minister Jane Stewart as a negotiator on the Caledonia land occupation team.

“Today, taxpayers are out $330, 000 on day 433 of the land occupation at Caledonia,” said Dunlop. To date, nothing has been resolved and the fiasco continues on with the replacement of Jane Stewart causing further delay with the negotiations.”

“The Caledonia crisis has cost the taxpayers of Ontario tens of millions of dollars in OPP resources, the cost of purchasing lands that continue to be occupied and the citizens of Caledonia have not been compensated for the massive intrusion into their lives,” added Dunlop.

Jane Stewart is a former Liberal Cabinet Minster in the Chrétien government who was responsible for the Human Resources department and for the one billion dollar boondoggle.

Mr. Dunlop’s statement from Hansard is enclosed.

Mr. Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): Following on the incompetence of the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal and this Lottogate scandal and the embarrassing position the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has put the McGuinty Liberals in with the slush fund scam, we now have another $330,000 being wasted with the so-called replacement of Liberal-appointed Jane Stewart as a negotiator in the Caledonia occupation. Imagine being paid $1,300 per day and ending up with no results.

As Janie Jamieson, spokesperson for the aboriginal protestors says, “Having Jane Stewart at the table, all the time and money spent on her, how much is to show for that? Not much at all.” The citizens of Ontario are frustrated, humiliated and outraged with the fiasco in Caledonia. We are now on day 433 of the land occupation. It has cost the OPP tens of millions of taxpayer dollars out of their budget. It has cost the Ontario taxpayer millions of dollars in land purchases—lands that are still under occupation. The McGuinty Liberals have promised and broken the promises on compensation for Caledonia residents. What have we achieved? Absolutely nothing.
Ontario taxpayers deserve much better use of their valuable tax dollars, but what is one to expect when the captain of this slush fund team is also the part-time Minister of Finance and chair of the Liberal re-election campaign?

We have seen no leadership from Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal government. They don’t even have the courage to visit Caledonia, unlike our leader, John Tory. Somebody over there on the Liberal side should have remembered that the Chrétien Human Resources Minister responsible for the billion dollar boondoggle was probably a poor choice as a negotiator in the very beginning.

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For further information contact:

Garfield Dunlop
705-327-4500 (cell)