Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals are demanding an investigation into status of women minister Helena Guergis’s $880,000 mortgage on her Ottawa home to ensure no favouritism was involved in its granting.
Montreal MP Marlene Jennings called for the review yesterday in a letter to Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson.
“I am requesting that your office conduct a review of the terms of Ms. Guergis’s mortgage to ensure that all ethical rules and guidelines were followed,” Ms. Jennings says. “I am sincerely hopefully [sic] that your review will find that there was no special considerations or arrangement granted to the Minister.”
Ms. Jennings writes further that she believes only a third-party review can give Canadians the “confidence they deserve that conflict of interest rules and ethical guidelines were followed to the letter.”
The Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor reported last weekend that Ms. Guergis paid $880,000 for her four-bedroom Ottawa home and it is not clear whether she put any money down.
She registered a mortgage for the full amount. Other financing details are fuzzy although the newspaper reported that the mortgage is from a bank in Edmonton, where her husband Rahim Jaffer served as a Conservative MP until his defeat in the last election.
“It is imperative that all Members of Parliament and Ministers in particular be seen to be beyond all conflicts real or perceived,” Ms. Jennings writes.
Ms. Guergis has been under fire of late since she threw a very public tantrum at the Charlottetown airport last February when it appeared she may have to miss her flight. More recently, she attracted controversy after staff members were discovered writing fawning letters about her to newspapers in her Ontario riding. The staffers did not identify themselves as working for Ms. Guergis.
The Liberals have been calling for her dismissal since the airport incident. This mortage controversy will just add more fuel to their fire - though it's clear some Grit MPs are fed up with the furor.
The Ethics Commissioner has yet to indicate whether there will be a review. Ms. Jennings was not available to comment, but her staff say that it has received an acknowledgement of the letter from Ms. Dawson's office.
