Apparently another head of a pointless federal government agency has left her post in disgrace, and with a costly taxpayer-funded severance package of $500,000 to ease the pain.
The office of integrity commissioner was created by the Harper government in 2007, undoubtedly to give the appearance of integrity in government, and Christiane Ouimet was appointed head.
Her mandate was probably to sit on her hands, and she accomplished that quite well as out of 228 allegations of wrongdoing, seven were investigated and no wrong-doings were found. She would no doubt still be safely ensconced in her position except she caught the eye of Auditor General Sheila Fraser who launched an audit into her office.
Ms Ouimet’s defence probably was that she couldn’t see for all the smoke that was being blown around Parliament Hill. She follows ex-privacy commissioner, Radwanski, who also left his unnecessary position in disgrace several years ago and, undoubtedly, with pockets full of taxpayer cash.
D C Bergman
Penticton