Ottawa

Who is to blame? Who will take responsibility?

NDP MP Matthew Kellway considers.

I don’t think responsibility in our political system should fall on the bureaucrats. The responsibility falls on the Minister. And so that’s where it rests. I think the Auditor General gave us a report that leads us right to the doorstep of the Associate Minister, two Ministers—one in Public Works and one of Defence —and the Prime Minister himself. And that’s where the responsibility lies.

Liberal MP Marc Garneau ponders.

The government of course is going to try to put all the blame on them and some of that blame does exist within DND. Certainly one can question whether the  Chief of Defence Staff should continue in his post because he is the top soldier. But let’s be very careful and not let the government suck us in and say, well, we were in the dark, it’s not really our fault. This is a pattern with this government. When they get themselves into trouble, they tend to attack the civil servants. They do not take their responsibilities … I used to be in DND. I spent my career in there and I did a lot of procurement. To suggest that the Minister of National Defence, the Minister of Public Works were not in the loop on the biggest defence spending program ever is absolutely ludicrous. They knew what was going on. What happened is that Mr. MacKay bought in hook, line and sinker into what the generals wanted over there which was the F-35 and he said, yes, I’m going to go to bat for you and he did not take his responsibility as a minister for what is an expenditure of tens of millions of dollars.

Bob Rae suggested the Prime Minister might resign. The Ottawa Citizen editorial board points at Peter MacKay. The Toronto Star says heads should roll.

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