Toronto, Ontario – “Kathleen Wynne approved a $317 million bailout to a private company without the public’s knowledge or approval of the Legislature,” said former Ontario PC MPP Frank Klees. “She needs to explain why this secret deal was never made public.”
This morning, Klees released a series of confidential Cabinet documents outlining Kathleen Wynne’s secret plan to bailout the MaRS office building in downtown Toronto.
“Kathleen Wynne approved a multi-million bailout without the public's knowledge and in a Cabinet room right before an election," said Klees “Not only was this hidden from the public, she needs to explain why this secret deal was made after she dissolved the Legislature."
The McGuinty–Wynne Liberals gave $234MM to MaRS and Alexandria Real Estate, Inc. to build a brand new office tower on prime real estate in downtown Toronto. Now that the private company and MaRS are unable to repay their loans, the government is using tax dollars to secretly bail them out to avoid political embarrassment.
The documents go on to say that failure to act will likely result in MaRS defaulting on its loan, causing foreclosure.
“Kathleen Wynne approved this deal in secret to avoid another public embarrassment for her scandal-plagued government,” said Klees, “Kathleen Wynne will do and say absolutely anything to cling to power, no matter what the cost to Ontario taxpayers,” Klees concluded.
"These documents read like a repeat of the Ornge documents that were sent to me by whistleblowers who could no longer stand the corruption that was going on there," said Klees, "Millions of taxpayer dollars poured into a federally-incorporated charity, with no government oversight."
The government will justify taking over the MaRS Phase II project by making the currently un-leased office space in the MaRS building home to the Ontario Public Service at prices that will not have to be put to competitive scrutiny.
For further information, contact Christine Bujold christine.bujold@pc.ola.org
