Public accounts committee wants e-gambling investigation

P.E.I's auditor general will be asked to launch an investigation into the province's e-gaming initiative.

The provincial government's public accounts committee voted Thursday to make the request.

It was revealed last fall by Finance Minister Wes Sheridan that the government had provided a loan to the Mi'kmaq Confederacy as seed money to try to develop a lucrative proposal to regulate online gambling.

The proposal failed.

Sheridan wouldn'treveal the amount of the loan. He would only say it was for less than $1-million.

The Mi'kmaq Confederacy has said it was only responsible for paying the money back once the plan started to generate revenue which never happened.

Opposition leader Steven Myers is a member of the public accounts committee.

"It's quite a tangled web the whole e-gaming thing," said Myers. "I'm not sure if we've ever gotten a straight answer from Wes Sheridan and I'm not sure if we ever will."

Auditor General Jane MacAdam is not bound by the committee's request. Her office can also investigate the program without being asked.

"But the truth is out there somewheres, and it's high time that we start trying to dig in and find out what that truth is," said Myers.

"There's a million dollars that we know about for sure that's gone."