Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Ontario, The minister in charge of paying Canada’s bills forgot to pay one of his own.
Finance Minister Joe Oliver neglected to pay his hotel tab in Wakefield, Que., last August at the conclusion of a major policy retreat with economists, bankers, business leaders and others.
His room bill for $168.15 was left unpaid for more than two months, until the Auberge Le Moulin Wakefield raised the delicate matter with a Finance Canada official, Rick LeBlanc, in late October.
Leblanc then used his departmental MasterCard to clear his boss’s debt for the Aug. 11-12 one-night stay, causing paperwork headaches for the bureaucracy.
“So, it does not appear that this issue will be solved easily,” says an Oct. 21 email from a senior accounting official at Finance.
“That said, given the amount involved and the fact that the vendor has now not been paid for two months, I am recommending that they be paid immediately … This will at least get the issue off your plates.”
A department insider who requested anonymity called the unpaid bill “an oversight. Didn’t realize when we left. Obviously (we) didn’t want to stiff the hotel.”
