Cornwallis denies withholding immigration documents

Cornwallis denies withholding immigration documents

 
 

BY BETH JOHNSTON, TRANSCONTINENTAL MEDIA

The Nova Scotia Business Journal

 
 

Immigration Minister Len Goucher is passing the buck by blaming the province's former partner for withholding audited financial statements on the Nova Scotia nominee program trust account, the president of Cornwallis Financial Corp. said.

"Either the minister is misinformed, or this is part of a deliberate, ongoing attempt by the province to deflect attention away from the Office of Immigration's mismanagement of the (NSNP) by erroneously blaming Cornwallis for its own failings," Cornwallis Financial Corp.'s Stephen Lockyer wrote in a letter to The Daily News. "At no time has Cornwallis resisted the release of the audited financial statements. In fact, Cornwallis has been keenly interested in having that information before the public because it discloses that the government's statements about Cornwallis's management of the NSNP are misleading."

Outside cabinet last Thursday, Goucher said he wants to release documents obtained by the legislature's public-accounts committee - which may clarify when the province first received advice to reduce its hefty immigration fees - but he can't.

Auditor General Jacques Lapointe is looking into the province's mentorship program, which was suspended in June 2006, after a report showed Nova Scotia was charging the highest immigration fees in Canada. The government terminated its contract with Cornwallis and later offered $60 million in refunds to 600 applicants.

Goucher said last week he'd asked Cornwallis on Nov. 9 to give third-party consent to release the documents to the media. He'd got a letter from Cornwallis on Nov. 15 informing him they had chosen "no position" on the documents' release. "Without their consent, it's not possible for us to release those documents outside of the FOIPOP (freedom of information and protection of privacy) process," Goucher said at the time.

Urging reporters to file Freedom of Information requests for the documents, Goucher said he wanted to release three audited financial statements prepared on the nominee program's trust fund while Cornwallis Financial Corp. was managing it, but Cornwallis wouldn't let him. Lockyer called that nonsense.

"It is ridiculous to suggest that Cornwallis's consent was necessary to enable those public documents to become available to the public. It is nonsense to suggest that Cornwallis's consent was required or that a FOIPOP request was necessary - the government releases documents all the time."

NDP MLA Graham Steele said Lockyer is "absolutely right." Hearing a minister misstating the law was troubling, he said. "We expect them not to get that kind of stuff wrong."

Goucher said Wednesday he wasn't "personally comfortable" releasing the documents because the government no longer has a contractual relationship with Cornwallis. "Without a third-party consent on it, I personally wasn't prepared to do it." – The Daily News

 
 

EXTRA: Some lawsuit papers held back: committee

By Brian Flinn, Transcontinental Media

The public will get to see some documents that have been turned over by the Office of Immigration. But the chairwoman of the legislature's public accounts committee said the government is withholding the juiciest information.

NDP MLA Maureen MacDonald said the committee is ready to release some records connected to the defamation lawsuit filed against the province by its former immigration partner, Cornwallis Financial Corp. "It's nothing Earth-shattering," MacDonald said. "It's in no way all of the documents we're looking for."

The committee asked to see all documents related to the failure of the province's mentorship program in advance of a Nov. 21 meeting with immigration officials. It got thousands of pages, and delayed the meeting one week so it could discuss how it should treat the information during a secret meeting Wednesday. There doesn't appear to be much chance the government will release information explaining why it signed an untendered contract with Cornwallis in 2002, or why cabinet decided last month to refund up to $60 million to immigrants.

MacDonald said the government is claiming some records are protected by cabinet privilege. It won't even show the committee a list of the documents it's withholding. After former economic development minister Ernie Fage resigned from cabinet last year, the government gave the committee copies of documents with sensitive information censored.

"During Potatogate, they gave us everything, but a bit of it was blanked out," MacDonald said. "This time, they just held it back. We've put them on notice we will bring them in to tell us why." – The Daily News

22/11/07 

 
 

Pasted from <http://www.novascotiabusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?sid=82728&sc=107>