Reloscam: They're Colleagues Now?

New information is at the bottom of this post. Some background for those interesed:

Loyola Hearn, MP for St. John's South, has some history kept on his website related to the Royal LePage affair here:

Mr. Loyola Hearn (St. John's West, PC): Mr. Speaker, government officials have confirmed the public works department's fraud investigation unit was involved in probing the circumstances surrounding the Liberal cruise for contracts policy and the $1.4 billion relocation contract for Royal-Lepage.

The Solicitor General has admitted the RCMP has been called in to investigate. Will he now table the internal audit which led to the investigation and can he tell us if there are other departments involved in this $1.4 billion scandal?

Ms. Judy Sgro (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we are not aware of any RCMP investigation in this file.

Issues were raised and the minister and the department have re-tendered the contract.

Mr. Loyola Hearn (St. John's West, PC): Mr. Speaker, this investigation goes beyond what government is willing to admit.

Will the minister confirm that eight other members of the evaluation committee, representatives from the Department of National Defence, Treasury Board and the RCMP attended various Royal LePage sponsored golf tournaments at no costs to themselves?

Has the RCMP investigation it branched out to include other government departments?

Will Public Works re-evaluate the way contracts are tendered, to ensure this practice is discontinued?

Ms. Judy Sgro (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I indicated previously, we are not aware of any RCMP investigation into this particular contract.

Issues were raised to the minister and he felt it was better to turn around and re-tender this contract.

and here:

Mr. Loyola Hearn: Mr. Speaker, when we hear that the whole country is very excited, now we have proof of it.

Like the infrastructure throughout the country, the Royal LePage scandal only gets worse by the day. Allegations of officials accepting gifts from Royal LePage involved more than one department.

Will the Minister of Defence tell the House if an internal investigation launched by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service into the matter is complete and if so, what were the findings?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, both the Minister of National Defence and I are concerned about this matter. When issues came to the attention of the other bidders in the process, they took the proper steps before the CITT. When particular allegations were drawn to my attention, I had my department investigate them thoroughly and on the basis of that, the whole process was re-tendered in order to protect the public interest.

Mr. Loyola Hearn (St. John's West, PC): Mr. Speaker, several departments have been tainted by the allegations that some of their employees may have accepted gifts from Royal LePage. These include Public Works, Treasury Board, DND and the RCMP.

Would the Solicitor General tell the House if the RCMP conducted an internal investigation into these allegations and if so, what were the conclusions of that investigation?

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, all deputy minister and departmental heads responsible for this matter are conducting the appropriate investigations. I have every confidence that they will indeed take the proper decisions in order to make sure that the appropriate consequences flow where they should.

Today I received a communication today from a source that claims to be close to this story, containing the following words:

I called Hearn's office to ask for an update on the file and Curtis Beers, Legislative Assistant to Hearn told me quote "Mr. Hearn is not prepared to do anything that might embarrass his colleague, Senator Eyton" unquote.

Not sure what to make of that. Odd.

Senator Eyton? tell me more about him. A director of Brascan Corp? that provides

"Commercial and residential brokerage services through wholly owned Royal LePage"

new post: Reloscam: From Rubec's Cube

Links to previous Reloscam posts:
Reloscam: Scene 2, Take 1
a brief(?) rebriefing;
from Hansard