Mr. Chairman, the ($398,432) comprises of 29,000 pounds of musk-ox meat valued at $316,643, and arts and crafts in the value of $81,789. I think Mr. Koe is correct, it is the way it is presented because the numbers add up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Debates of April 2nd, 1993
Topics
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
John Pollard Hay River
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
The Chair Ludy Pudluk
Thank you. Mr. Koe.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
Fred Koe Inuvik
I have some questions on the letter that the Minister wrote on the disposal of inventory and assets. The total cost of items sold, which is a car, equipment and fixtures from the restaurant, equal $274,500. The depreciation of this $275,000 was $247,000. So about 90 per cent of it has depreciated. Is this standard practice to have such a heavy depreciation of these types of assets? You are writing-off almost all of it.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
The Chair Ludy Pudluk
Thank you. Mr. Pollard.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
John Pollard Hay River
Mr. Chairman, I would have to bring in one of my staff to explain the accounting procedure for the breakdown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
The Chair Ludy Pudluk
Does this committee agree to bring in his officials? Proceed, Mr. Minister.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
The Chair John Ningark
Mr. Minister, for the record, would you introduce your witnesses please.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
John Pollard Hay River
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Jim Kennedy, who is the director of finance for the Department of Economic Development and Tourism.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. General comments. Mr. Pollard.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1476
John Pollard Hay River
Mr. Chairman, with regard to the breakdown, it was because it was a one-time short-term exposition. It was written down over that period of time
because that was the right way to do it for those one-time shows.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
Fred Koe Inuvik
Thank you. So the book value is $27,700 according to your document and we gave away all those goods for $23,800 and we still ended up with a loss on our values. We could not find buyers, how much effort was put into looking to sell all the goodies that were left over from this one time only show?
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Minister.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
John Pollard Hay River
Mr. Chairman, I think about six weeks before the close of the exposition there were feelers being put out as to how to dispose of the assets that we had over there. I think that the staff did a reasonable job. As Mr. Lewis has pointed out to me on a number of occasions, there is not a lot of money in Spain. So I think they did the best they could with being in a country that was foreign with a foreign language, although the majority of them could speak some Spanish. The fact that we were pressed for time towards the end -- how long do you sit there on a pile of inventory and say I am asking for a better price. It was a bit of a buyers market there, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. The Honourable Member for Inuvik.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
Fred Koe Inuvik
Another area that I am quite astounded by is the area of food and liquor. My colleague from Yellowknife South, or wherever he is from, mentioned the musk-ox meat. The area that interests me is where a Spanish company that is responsible for transporting and storing supplies did not return the liquor left at the end of the fair. It goes on to say "The liquor inventory included 48 cases of vodka, 50 cases of gin and 50 cases of white rum. My quick calculations are 1,776 bottles. Your letter the value of that 1,776, assuming they were all full cases and full bottles, was $3,400 and I assume that is Canadian. Again, my quick calculation says that these bottles are worth $1.91 Canadian. It does not seem very much. I am wondering how many pesos that is worth in Spain. You can do a lot of damage and make a lot more money than $3,400 and there is a sellers market in Canada for all of these 148 cases of liquor.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. People do more business under the influence. Mr. Minister.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
John Pollard Hay River
Mr. Chairman, there were a number of strange things that happened over there. For instance, we had an arrangement with Moosehead beer to sell beer in the restaurant. First of all, we could not get it out of storage and then another time they wanted us to mark a "good before date" on each of the boxes of beer and eventually they got it down to a good before date on each bottle of beer. One time the staff went over there to get the beer and it was all turned upside down. There were a number of strange things that happened in the storage and transportation of these items. To get to the question, we received most of this liquor for some extremely low prices, Mr. Chairman. I do not have the prices here, but if the value is being stated at $3,400 Canadian, that is probably what it was because we did get some really cheap deals with liquor companies and with Moosehead beer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Koe.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
Fred Koe Inuvik
That does not mean we just leave it. The item before that, the beer and wine stored at the warehouse valued at $35,900 was sold to a Spanish resort for $11,800, a loss of $24,100. Again, I am just wondering why do you not give the damn stuff away -- I am sorry for my language. It seems to have been dumped, or absconded. The control seems a little lax and that is the point I am trying to make.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Minister.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
John Pollard Hay River
Mr. Chairman, with regard to the beer, do not forget they had insisted that we put on a best before date so we were stuck with a product that was fast running out of time. We tried to sell it to the American forces in Germany, we tried to sell it to other armed forces in Germany. We figured that some American C-130 would just hop in there and pick all that beer up and take it away at a responsible price. We were unable to do that. Taking wine to Spain is like taking coal to Newcastle. The value of the wine was not that great over there and in the end the staff sold the beer and wine for the best price they could get for it. As I said, it was a buyer's market.
With regard to the missing liquor, I do say in the letter we did have an outstanding balance with that company and we are taking that money off the cost we owe that particular company, Mr. Chairman. So there will be some recapture there. Thank you.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Koe.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
Fred Koe Inuvik
In the evaluation report the conclusion by the office of the Comptroller General, "It is our opinion that all parts of section 12(2)(c), the Financial Administration Act were not complied with." Can the Minister advise if any disciplinary action or any action has been taken for the non-compliance to this act as part of the follow up of this whole Expo affair?
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Minister.
Tabled Document 133-12(3): Evaluation Of The Financial Operations Of Expo '92 Revolving Fund And Tabled Document 134-12(3): Aurorales Expo '92 Revolving Fund Account Balance Sheet, March 19, 1993
Item 18: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1477
John Pollard Hay River
Mr. Chairman, I received this report the same day that I tabled it. I have not had a chance to sit down with the Comptroller General to go over it with him and get his suggestions on whether or not there should be any disciplinary action. My feeling is that what the Comptroller General is pointing out to us is that all of the parts of section 12(2)(c) of the FAA were not complied with and that relates to the weaknesses that he pointed out in the systems. I will sit down with the Comptroller General and go over that issue with him and see whether he is suggesting that there should be some disciplinary action. Then I will take it from there, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.