QUEEN’S PARK – Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees produced court records at the hearings into the Ornge Air Ambulance scandal this week, that show that Ornge’s recently appointed Chief Operating Officer, Robert Giguere evaded personal service of a Summons to Witness. The documents are related to the bankruptcy proceedings of Skyservice Airlines Inc. where Giguere was President from October 2007 until it was forced to shut down under a pile of debt in March of 2010.
The documents show that the legal firm McCarthy Tetrault, representing the court-appointed receiver of Skyservice Airlines Inc. made numerous unsuccessful attempts to obtain evidence from Giguere related to money that was transferred from the company's general account to another bank account prior to the receivership.
On March 23, 2012 a Notice of Motion was filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice stating that not only had Mr. Giguere not responded to emails, telephone calls, and letters asking that he contact counsel for the Receiver, but that he had also evaded personal service of a Summons to Witness. The court subsequently ordered that Giguere could be served by substituted service.
When asked why he raised this issue in the committee hearings, Klees said "Given the scandals that were allowed to hatch at Ornge under this government's watch, I would have expected that the Minister and the new Board of Directors would want to be particularly diligent when it comes to the hiring of senior executives in the organization."
"If the Minister was aware of this questionable behaviour on the part of Mr. Giguere and supported his hire, I question her judgment" said Klees. " If she wasn't aware, then I have to once again question her grasp of this file and the competence of those responsible for keeping her informed. I also have to question the diligence and judgment of the Board of Directors, who
made the hiring decision."
Klees pointed out that for all the rhetoric about how things have changed at Ornge, apart from more paper in the form of a new bill and different names on business cards, what hasn't changed is the lack of oversight on the part of the Minister and her ministry, which according to Klees, is the reason the Ornge scandal was allowed to fester.
"The last person associated with Ornge who appeared before the committee who had to be compelled to testify was Chris Mazza" said Klees. "One would think that respect for the legal process would be high on the list of qualifications for new hires at Ornge."
