Let RCMP contact me, former minister says
ONTARIO’S EX-FINANCE CHIEF
TORONTO • Greg Sorbara sat as a backbencher in the Ontario legislature during the Throne Speech yesterday, a sign of his newly diminished status following his resignation from the finance portfolio amid an RCMP fraud investigation.
His previous seat, directly to the left of Premier Dalton McGuinty, was occupied by Dwight Duncan, the former energy minister, who became the new Minister of Finance on Tuesday night. And while Mr. Sorbara — who stepped down from Cabinet late Tuesday night — remained in the Liberals’ front row, he sat as the seventh and second-last person to Mr. McGuinty’s right.
Mr. Sorbara resigned hours after it became public that the Mounties were investigating allegations he defrauded investors and creditors of Royal Group Technologies Ltd. The targets of the RCMP’s investigation were revealed in search warrants filed in court on Tuesday. No criminal charges have been laid.
In a terse and informal exchange with reporters before the Throne Speech yesterday, Mr. Sorbara said he “absolutely, absolutely,” denied the allegations being made against him.
“I have absolutely no information on them. I don’t know what they’re based on. I’ve invited the RCMP to contact me, to let me know what it is that they’re investigating, and so far, that hasn’t happened.”
RCMP spokeswoman Michele Paradis declined to comment on Mr. Sorbara’s remarks yesterday.
Mr. Sorbara had been a director of Woodbridge, Ont.-based Royal Group from 1994 to 2003 and sat on its audit committee. The allegations, which have not been proven in court, span the years from 1996 to 2002.
The Mounties also are investigating whether Mr. Sorbara allegedly took part in publishing false statements in a bid to convince potential investors to become Royal Group shareholders.
Ms. Paradis said two of the four warrants the RCMP executed on Tuesday have been completed, including one at the address of The Sorbara Group, a realdevelopment and investment firm partly owned by Mr. Sorbara and headed by his brothers, Joseph and Edward.
She also said the RCMP investigation of dealings at Royal Group had been launched in January, 2003, at about the same time that the RCMP and a number of other agencies came together to launch the Mounties’ white-collar crime unit.
That probe was not made public until the company disclosed it in February, 2004.
At Queen’s Park, provincial Tory and NDP politicians seized on Mr. Sorbara’s resignation as a sign of instability within the McGuinty government.
“ The bottom line is we have a government that is, I think, in a crisis of confidence here and that is going to have a lot of trouble dealing with the big issues of the economy and energy and health care because they’re going to be distracted by these events,” Opposition leader John Tory told reporters.
Howard Hampton, the Ontario NDP leader, said: “ I think it will be the people of Ontario who pay for this. At a time when the economy is not running on all cylinders, when we’ve lost 42,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs, the person who’s supposed to be overseeing the economy ... is no longer there — that’s not a good sign.”
Mr. McGuinty fought off suggestions that his government was on shaky footing, telling reporters “we will not allow any recent Cabinet shuffle to interfere with our plan to move forward for the people of Ontario.”
He also delivered a personal endorsement of Mr. Sorbara: “If you’re asking me whether or not I will sever my friendship with Greg Sorbara, no, I won’t.”
Mr. Duncan also suggested that even though this is a challenging time for the government, it must be able to move on.
“ This is a down day — there’s no question — for our government. But you know what? The mark of a good government ... is when you get back up,” Mr. Duncan said.