OTTAWA (CP) - A shadowy fund earmarked to help save Canada was such a state secret that its existence was never revealed in any budget document and its name never spoken to Paul Martin in his years as finance minister.
What terrible secret lies here, the reader asks? Exotic weapons programs? Shady espionage projects? Hard-eyed assassins, discreet, deniable, ruthless?
... Yet another official said every expenditure from the fund was personally approved by Jean Chrétien when he was prime minister.
He cited several examples of initiatives that received cash from the fund, like Canada Day parades and youth travel exchanges between francophones and non-francophones, and contact between aboriginals and non-natives through the Katimavik youth-development program.
... One federal official offered an example of how the fund worked: the Heritage Department would approach the Prime Minister's Office for cash to pay for a Canada Day parade, and the requested sum would be added to the Heritage budget.
Sometimes the funding initiatives were initiated by the Prime Minister's Office, the official said.
Posted by Patrick at March 25, 2004 12:49 AM