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INDEPTH: SPONSORSHIP SCANDAL
Gomery Inquiry: A prime minister testifies
CBC News Online | February 10, 2005

Prime Minister Paul Martin testifies at the Gomery inquiry. (CP PHOTO/Jonathan Hayward)

This time there was no opening statement. Prime Minister Paul Martin faced immediate questions from the Gomery Inquirys co-counsel, Neil Finkelstein, on what he knew about the $250 million sponsorship program.

It started out pretty much what youd expect from a man who spent nine years tending Canadas books.

Martin went through a detailed explanation of how - as finance minister - his job was to allocate money to the various government departments. Once that was done, he said he wasnt involved in decisions about how the departments spent their budgets.

The responsibility of the minister of finance is to set the financial context in which overall spending can be done. Once the minister of finance does that, which is essentially the presentation of the budget, his responsibility comes to a total end.''

Spending decisions were finalized by Treasury Board, after they were approved by cabinet.

Martin distanced himself from the sponsorship program. He told the inquiry he had no contact with Jean Pelletier, former prime minister Jean Chrétien's chief of staff, about the sponsorship program. Pelletier was the key person in the Prime Ministers Office regarding the sponsorship program.

Neil Finkelstein: What was your working relationship with Jean Pelletier from 1993 onwards?

Paul Martin: It was fine. We didnt work closely together. Whenever we did, the relationship was fine.

NF: You saw him at Tuesday morning Quebec cabinet ministers meetings?

PM: Yes.

NF: Did you have private meetings with him there?

PM: No.

NF: Private meetings when you were finance minister?

PM: Very few. Mr. Pelletier was in charge, for instance, of making sure that salary guidelines for ministers staff were respected. I would meet with him on those issues.

NF: How often did you have private meetings with him?

PM: Two to four times a year, maybe.

NF: Did you ever discuss sponsorships with Mr. Pelletier?

PM: No.

NF: Advertising?

PM: Never.

NF: You didnt discuss the budget?

PM: No.

NF: The unity reserve?

PM: Never.

Martin also testified that he had no knowledge of the national unity reserve fund while he was finance minister in 1994 and 1995. He said he was absorbed with slashing the deficit and dealing with an international economic crisis that threatened Canadas economic stability in the mid-1990s.

The unity fund was used to pay for the sponsorship program.

Prime Minister Paul Martin testifies at the Gomery inquiry. (CP PHOTO/Jonathan Hayward)

Martin said he didn't know about the unity reserve fund until 1996, and first learned about problems with the sponsorship program in 2001. He told the inquiry that the fund was set up under the previous Conservative government and was due to expire in 1996. But a decision was made to continue with the reserve fund, so it had to be approved before it could be extended.

"I agreed and it went into the budget," he told the inquiry.

That drew a puzzled look from the head of the inquiry, Mr. Justice John Gomery.

"I'm wondering why it is that you don't have much of a memory of the creation of this fifty million dollar fund for discretionary spending by the prime minister..."

In his testimony earlier in the week, Chrétien said Martin "always agreed to set aside $50 million a year for expenditures related to national unity that would be decided upon during the course of the year."

The inquiry also heard that Martin was invited to Claude Boulay's 50th birthday in the spring of 2001.

Boulay is an advertising executive with Groupe Everest, a firm which collected millions of dollars in government contracts through the sponsorship program.

Martin says Boulay was just an acquaintance.

Martins testimony was in marked contrast to that of Chrétien. While Chrétien jostled with commission counsel Bernard Roy and pulled golf balls out of his briefcase to illustrate a point, Martin plodded along, going into sometimes excruciating detail of the job of a finance minister.

It took less than a day.

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MAIN PAGE TIMELINE OF RECENT EVENTS
GOMERY REPORT: PHASE TWORESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY HIGHLIGHTS FAQs FULL REPORT REACTION QUOTES
GOMERY REPORT: PHASE ONEFULL REPORT MAJOR FINDINGS HIGHLIGHTS WHO KNEW WHAT REACTION KEY QUOTES ANALYSIS: Liberals' worst fears ANALYSIS: How did it go so wrong?MONTREAL REACTS: Tracey Madigan's Online Diary
GALLERIES:Who's who photo gallery Cartoon gallery: Phase One report Cartoon gallery: Auditor general's report
GOMERY INQUIRY:Gomery: The players Gomery: Key Companies Gomery by the numbers A summary of the testimony Testimony 2004 Follow the money Kroll report (pdf)
PLEA TO THE NATION:Paul Martin's televised address Stephen Harper's response Jack Layton's response

Gilles Duceppe's response (RealVideo runs 5:59)
KEY WITNESSES:
CHUCK GUITÉ'Not all my fault'From bureaucrat to lobbyist 'No phoney invoices'
PAUL COFFIN'Phoney invoices'
JACQUES CORRIVEAU:At the centre of the storm
ALAIN RENAUD:Lobbyist extraordinaire
JEAN BRAULT:Cash for contracts Paper trail
PAUL MARTIN:Not in the sponsorship loop
JEAN CHRETIEN:Economics and golf balls Editorial reviews
VIEWPOINT:Rex Murphy: Sell the Peace Tower to Wal-Mart?Ira Basen: Watergate, the sponsorship scandal and the press
HISTORY:Ad firms and liberals In their own words
RELATED:The top 10 Canadian government scandals Public inquiries Auditor General's report 2004 Jean Chrétien Paul Martin

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Gomery Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program

Public Works internal audit on sponsorship program, August 2000 [PDF file]

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