Session: 38:2
Date: 4-Apr-200

ONTARIO LOTTERY AND GAMING CORP.

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock): Hundreds of millions of dollars potentially stolen from people who were the legitimate winners of lotteries; a minister who follows a "don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to his job of overseeing Ontario Lottery and Gaming; and a scathing report from the Ombudsman that details shocking practices that have undermined public confidence in the integrity of the lottery system: Everyone in Ontario sees this as a scandalous problem, everyone except the Premier of Ontario, who views it as a communications problem.

Rather than taking action to address insider fraud, this government ignored all the evidence and instead concentrated on a communications strategy. Four key advisers to the Premier were involved in an attempt to spin the scandal by trying to discredit the CBC report. That didn't work, so the next move was to pay off the OLG CEO with a $720,000 severance package and offer him up as a scapegoat. The Premier's latest communications strategy-laying the blame on Ontario's retailers yesterday-is a new low for this government and an insult to the thousands of honest people working in convenience stores across Ontario.

The constant refusals to answer questions on who knew what and when in the Premier's office and in the minister's office demonstrate that the McGuinty government can't be trusted to get to the bottom of this scandal. What are you hiding from over there? Stop the communications strategies of laying blame on everyone except the Premier and the minister responsible. If you have nothing to hide, open up the investigation to include the offices of the Premier and the minister.