Fueling Election Train VII

Colle aide's group tied to `slush funds'
Chinese association got $250,000 grant
May 05, 2007
Rob Ferguson
Queen's Park Bureau

An adviser to provincial cabinet minister Mike Colle was a director and remains a member of a Chinese group granted $250,000 from what critics are calling a Liberal "slush fund," the Star has learned.

The cheque was sent from Colle's citizenship and immigration ministry in late March to the Chinese Professionals Association of Canada in Scarborough to help build a new career counselling centre.

Colle policy adviser Michael Huang confirmed yesterday he served on the association's board of directors until several months ago, although he's still listed as a director on the Corporations Canada website.

"I've got no knowledge of that," he said when asked how the Chinese association got the grant.

The $250,000 is part of $32 million Colle awarded to 110 groups – including several with Liberal ties – in the last two years for immigrant aid and other programs without a formal application process, a loophole the government has since closed amid opposition charges the money is a "slush fund."

But this is the first time it has been revealed money went to a group with such close links to someone in Colle's office. Huang works in the minister's office on the sixth floor of a University Ave. office building.

While Colle and Premier Dalton McGuinty have denied cash was funnelled to Liberal-friendly groups, critics are pushing for a special probe by Ontario's auditor general before the Oct. 10 provincial election to determine whether political favouritism played a role into how grants were awarded.

The Liberals have voted down opposition motions for a special probe, arguing the auditor general is free to look at any spending as part of his annual review due out in December.

Colle was not available for comment yesterday, but his spokesperson said the grant to the Chinese group and Huang's role in the minister's office are a coincidence and nothing more.

Huang wasn't hired as a full-time adviser until March after serving with Colle's office under an Ontario civil service internship program for foreign-trained graduates since early last fall, said Rick Byun, the minister's senior communications adviser.

"He was an intern, he was not involved in decision-making for funding," Byun said.

The executive director of the Chinese Professionals Association, Dawin Kong, said yesterday the group submitted a proposal to Colle's ministry in February seeking $1 million toward a new career counselling centre.

He said Huang, whom he described as a "lifetime member," did not play a role.

"I seldom talk to him," said Kong. "He is no longer in management on the board. ... We don't touch any political affairs."

Huang said he did not influence Colle in regard to the grant for the association, a registered, non-profit charity which was founded in 1992 and has more than 20,000 members.

"I'm not involved in those grant things," Huang said in a brief telephone interview, acknowledging he was involved with the Chinese association for "several years" before quitting its board late last year.

He said he could not remember the date of his resignation, but a story in Toronto Chinese-language daily newspaper Sing Tao pictured him last Oct. 16 after being re-elected for another term on the board.

Liberal officials later approached the Star to offer details of Huang's departure from the board, with party spokesperson Ben Chin saying Huang quit to avoid "a potential conflict of interest."

Byun described Huang as a "junior staffer" who did the right thing by resigning from the board.

"He had cut his ties, it was all quite honourable," said Byun, who described Huang as a "success story" for getting hired full-time in the minister's office.

He said Huang has a bachelor's degree in science from Beijing University and came to Canada in 1988 to earn a doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Toronto.

The opposition parties have questioned a $200,000 grant a year ago to the Iranian-Canadian Community Centre, a group that is yet to build a community centre and has raised just $15,000 in other funds.

The president of the Richmond Hill provincial Liberal riding association was a director until recently, as was nuclear safety expert Reza Moridi, who is seeking the Liberal nomination for the riding in the October election.

Another grant for $250,000 went to the Bengali Cultural Society, whose director is a member of the Ontario Liberal Party.